Investments of $40 million to prevent flooding in Trois-Rivières

The City of Trois-Rivières is taking a further step in its desire to prevent flooding, especially in the Trois-Rivières-Ouest district, which has been hit more often than not by bursts of water in recent years. years.

This is one of the major directions that the City has included in its three-year capital expenditure program for the years 2025 to 2027, a program which must be adopted by elected officials on June 13.

In this three-year program, the City confirms its action plan for three rivers, namely the Milette, Bettez and Lacerte rivers. All of this will require investments of $8 million per year for 5 years, for a total of $40 million.

What we want is to set up a real project which will allow us to intervene promptly, and which will ensure that the interventions will be felt in all the neighborhoods which are concernednotes the mayor of Trois-Rivières, Jean Lamarche.

To prevent overflows during periods of rain, several interventions will be carried out, sooner rather than later, promises the mayor. The work has begun. It’s just that there, we don’t see the glitch on the edge of the riverhe adds.

Clearer intentions

The City’s intentions seem clearer to improve a situation that has long been criticized by citizens in the area.

The first action included in the Plan for the three Milette, Bettez and Lacerte rivers is the reprofiling of the ditch along Highway 55, from Highway 40 to Laviolette Park.

Despite the urgency of the situation, the anticipated results are far from obvious, believes Marc Lépine, founder of the Eau-tage group, which brings together 200 citizens. His doubts are based on his observations of the work currently being done in a ditch, work which according to him requires an investment of 8 million dollars.

However, this work are based on 2012 studieshe emphasizes. When we ask the municipality how they can guarantee that this work will work, the answer is: we don’t know.

This activist, who himself has been faced with flooding in his house three times in ten years, intends to continue to closely monitor the waterways and the works, while hoping that Mother Nature will be milder this year. We have a lot of resilience. We will take what happens and we will react accordinglysaid Mr. Lépine. We have no control over that.

The three-year capital expenditure program of the City of Trois-Rivières, which must be adopted on June 13, also provides for the addition of a storm drain on Père-Daniel Street, near the viaduct which has also seen its share of floods in recent years. This project is however registered for the year 2027.