After Ville-Marie Expressway incident, civil engineers call for changes

Following the collapse of a 16-metre piece of concrete from an overpass  on the Ville-Marie Expressway in Montreal, the Canadian Society for Civil Engineering (CSCE) is calling for governments to rethink their infrastructure policies.

A CSCE press release release of August 3 said: “This structural failure is similar to other recent bridge failures elsewhere in North America. past-president of the CSCE, Dr. Saeed Mirza, P.Eng., FCSCE has been quoted as saying “We must change the current practice of  DESIGN, BUILD and FORGET, and design and construct all infrastructure facilities for sustainable performance over the designated service life, considering all life cycle costs (including environmental, economic, social, etc.) with regular maintenance and any required rehabilitation and partial replacement when needed….

“CSCE strongly supports the need for increased focus on the infrastructure that supports our standard of living. Unfortunately,

past decisions have left public agencies and municipalities with infrastructure needs that are often beyond their means.”

To read the full release, click here.

http://www.csce.ca/admin/docs/Ville%20Marie%20Press%20Release.pdf