According to experts, bridges built for the sole reason of “economic security” are rare in the world and studies tend to demonstrate that it is better to invest in the sustainability of existing links.
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The newspaper asked experts on these issues if it was common practice in the world to build bridges to ensure “economic security”, as the Legault government wishes to do with the third link.
According to the responses received, examples are very rare. Experts indicate that bridge construction is generally linked to traffic issues. “All bridges are built to improve traffic flow, which should indirectly contribute to the development of the economy. The more the bridge makes an area that was previously inaccessible accessible, the more significant it will have an impact on the economy. The Quebec region is not an inaccessible area, even in the absence of the Pierre-Laporte bridge. We can therefore expect that a new bridge will have a low impact, even on economic security,” estimates Jean-Philippe Meloche, professor at the School of Urban Planning and Landscape Architecture at the University of Montreal
“Political” reasons
Other more “political” reasons are sometimes mentioned, underlines Mr. Meloche. This is the case of the Confederation Bridge between New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island, for a question of “Canadian unity”, or that of the Golden Gate of San Francisco, to make work unemployed during the Great Depression.
Martin Trépanier, full professor in the Department of Mathematics and Industrial Engineering at Polytechnique in Montreal, emphasizes that the economic aspect was used for the new Gordie Howe bridge in Detroit-Windsor. “Here, there is the argument of border crossing time and time savings for trucks. We are not talking specifically about “economic security”.”
Fanny Tremblay-Racicot, associate professor at ÉNAP, mentions the three bridges in Florianopolis, Brazil. “The last two were used to ‘replace’ the first during its closure and restoration.” This still caused “a huge amount of congestion on the island,” notes the expert.
Redundancy
Dominic Villeneuve, assistant professor at the Higher School of Territorial Planning and Regional Development at Laval University (UL), indicates that few studies look at the redundancy of transport infrastructures, i.e. their duplication to cope to a catastrophe.
On the other hand, numerous studies underline “the economic importance of exploring all potential solutions in order to maintain the structures of existing bridges in good condition, in order to avoid having to replace them with new construction,” relates Mr. Villeneuve.
Marie-Hélène Vandersmissen, vice-dean of studies in the Department of Geography at UL, does not have in mind examples of bridges built for economic security. If she does not believe that we should exclude the economy from questions of transport and development, she believes that “the idea of building a 3e link in case the Pierre-Laporte bridge closes for a few months or a few years […] seems a bit, let’s say, exaggerated. It sounds like a “doomsday” scenario.”
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