Less than 18 months after the inauguration of the SRB Pie-IX, the Société de transport de Montréal (STM) will replace hundreds of meters of fencing to reduce the risk of collisions between vehicles and pedestrians, we learned. The Press.
Workers will soon reappear on the route of the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT), which took 13 years to plan and build. They will replace metal barriers that impede visibility near stations. Bill: about half a million dollars.
“We had a few incidents between pedestrians and cars on Pie-IX,” said the director of the SRB project office, Tatiane Pallu, in a telephone interview. She cites in particular two accidents that occurred at the intersection between the SRB and Robert Boulevard, in Saint-Léonard, when people crossed the pedestrian light without waiting.
“We asked an external firm to produce a report to tell us if there is anything we could do better, beyond the rules, beyond the standards to further increase safety at intersections” , said M.me Pallu.
Recommendation: Reduce by half the height of barriers that prevent pedestrians from randomly crossing at BRT intersections. They will go from 1.5 m to 70 cm.
In total, nearly 550 meters of fences will be replaced, confirmed Mme Pallu, or 25% of the SRB fences. “We must say that the fences that we are going to remove from Pie-IX will still be used by the STM for its maintenance work,” she continued.
Call for tenders closed
The STM launched a call for tenders last month to find a contractor who would tackle this replacement work.
“After the delivery of the project and the commissioning of the SRB Pie-IX, it was noted that it would be safer to lower part of the fences on either side of the intersection,” the documents indicate. They also specify that the STM acts as delegated manager of the Regional Metropolitan Transport Authority (ARTM) in this matter.
Companies interested in the project had until Tuesday to submit a proposal. The STM expected to have to pay around $500,000 for this corrective project. “The prices come out lower than what we had estimated. It is certain that there is a conformity analysis to be done (…), but the two lowest bidders are $100,000 less than what we had evaluated,” indicated Mme Pallu.
The official opposition at Montreal city hall criticized the situation.
“In the absence of appropriate verifications, taxpayers will have to pay for poor management by the Plante administration and poor planning of the project,” responded Christine Black, transportation spokesperson. “In addition to creating additional costs at the expense of Montrealers, avoidable work will have to be carried out and traffic obstructions will be created, which will impact SRB service. »
Announced in 2009, the SRB Pie-IX cost more than half a billion in public funds and accumulated years of delays. The contractor responsible for the project, EBC, is now suing the STM for $72 million, alleging that the project was extremely poorly planned from the start.
reference: www.lapresse.ca