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City releases report on infrastructure, will up spending on Road Repairs

The city of Montreal says the condition of its tunnels, overpasses and bridges is improving – but, that change is coming slowly.

On Thursday, the city revealed its annual report on Montreal’s 588 city-owned structures, based on inspections done throughout 2013. The findings show a positive, albeit small, improvement in the state of the city’s infrastructure.

The move in the right direction, the city says, comes courtesy of an increase in money and maintenance flowing into its structures. The newly unveiled report shows that fewer of the city’s structures were deemed to be in “critical condition” this year than last, dropping down from 24 to 21. But these areas of concern still need fixing, and fast. Montreal Executive Committee member Lionel Perez announced that the city will be almost doubling the amount of money it will be putting towards repairing its structures in 2014.

Last year, Montreal spent $7.5 million to fix various overpasses, tunnels, and interchanges, and this year it’ll be doling out $13 million.

That figure still pales in comparison to what Mayor Denis Coderre is hoping to spend from now until 2017 – a investment in the neighborhood of $118 million. This money would go towards a myriad of repairs intended to fix up the city’s bridges, tunnels and overpasses, more than half of which were built before 1970. Perez assured Montrealers that the structures that are currently open and available for use are safe, and that the city will not compromise the safety of its users.

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