Friday marks the 10th anniversary of one of the most shocking tragedies in recent Quebec history.
A section of an overpass in Laval collapsed, killing five people, injuring six others, calling the integrity of the province's entire road network into question — and causing thousands of Quebecers to look up whenever they ride underneath an overpass.
Just before noon on Saturday, Sept. 30, 2006, 9-1-1 calls started coming in form drivers along Highway 19 in Laval, from people reporting large chunks of concrete falling from the De La Concorde overpass above.
Moments later, a 20-metre section of it completely collapsed, crushing five people to death in their cars on Highway 19. Six people riding on the overpass itself suggered injuries as their vehicles plunged to the roadway below.
In 2000, a similar incident during Grand Prix weekend on De Souvenir St. in Laval happened. One man was killed, and two others were hurt on the Laurentian Autoroute. The overpass was under construction at the time.
CJAD's traffic expert Rick Leckner says the De La Concorde incident finally got the government to make some major changes.
"As is usually the case, it took this horrific incident 10 years ago to really create a much better situation," he says. "There were three things that really came together that, I think, people can relate to. One, the lack of proper funding, because successive Quebec governments were continuously cutting back on the amount of money they were putting in to road and infrastructure repairs on an annual basis; shoddy workmanship; and really, just a lack of inspection and a lack of monitoring.
"Really, it was unforgivable what happened."
But are the roads really much safer than they were a decade ago? Leckner says that while nothing is foolproof, the Quebec government has put more money and inspectors to work to maintain the road network, and to identify at-risk overpasses.
A year-long public inquiry headed by former Quebec premier Pierre-Marc Johnson was called to look into the disaster. It concluded that no single entity was to blame for the collapse — that it was a combination of several factors. The report noted the overpass was poorly designed, with concrete which couldn't withstand things risk road salt or our constant freeze-thaw cycles.
Even before the final report was tabled, Johnson announced that 135 bridges and overpasses needed urgent repairs — or outright demolition.