Minister Jean-Yves Duclos says he has finished “bickering” with Minister Geneviève Guilbault on the Quebec Bridge

Federal Minister Jean-Yves Duclos wants to put an end to the “squabbles” through the media with Quebec Transport Minister Geneviève Guilbault over the Quebec Bridge and believes that it is now time to let the specialists work.

• Also read: Deck too heavy for the Quebec bridge: the MTQ is currently reviewing its project

• Also read: The future deck too heavy for the Quebec bridge, warns the federal government

At the end of a week full of twists and turns on the state of the famous heritage structure, the Liberal federal MP from Quebec saw fit to speak with Minister Guilbault “during the last few days”. “We really like journalists, but we will work differently. We will form a group of experts together [et d’ingénieurs] of both governments.”

Through media

For some time now, the two ministers have been sending each other digs through the media. Each criticized the other’s comments on the real load-bearing capacity of the bridge and the deck.

It all culminated this week with the publication of a letter, revealed by Le Journal, which set out several warnings from the federal government to the MTQ on the excessive weight of the new deck that the latter intends to install to replace the existing motorway and on structural bearing capacity studies.

For experts to work

“I’m not an engineer, Mr.^me Neither does Guilbault. So, we are going to stop speaking through journalists and we are going to ask our experts to work together. […] Instead of bickering between politicians, which people don’t like and which I don’t like either, we’re going to put the experts together.”

Minister Duclos nevertheless affirmed “that we cannot make the deck of the Quebec Bridge heavier by 30%” and stressed that there are materials available today which make it possible to find solutions, without wanting to comment on those who should be chosen.

For its part, the MTQ affirms that it is “still analyzing the requests of the new owner of the bridge”, namely Ottawa.

“Important unknowns” linked to the various studies on the Quebec bridge *

• “Basic data that is more than 10 years old used for analyzes of main members”;
• “Bearing capacity analyzes that do not include secondary members”;
• “Analyses that exclude loads caused by ice”;
• “The lack of more in-depth analysis and the failure to consider the damage noted to various components such as the trunnions, gusset plates and main seats”;
• “The obligation to limit traffic to a level that is rather inconvenient for the public during the work so that the demands on certain components reach an acceptable threshold”;
• “Analyses which demonstrate the overloads for the proposed loading which will regularly exceed the normal limit capacity of the structure”;
• “The uncertainty caused by overloading components over a long period of time which could lead to cracks in the steel.”

* Source: Letter sent on September 12, 2024 to the MTQ by the federal agency Housing, Infrastructure and Communities Canada