MONTREAL - A large piece of concrete fell inside a Montreal highway tunnel Sunday morning, closing the roadway in both directions.
According to Montreal police Const. Anie Lemieux, the concrete fell just after 9 a.m. on the eastbound side of the Ville Marie Tunnel.
"The information that we have is that a structure collapsed ... near the Hotel de Ville Ave. overpass," Lemieux said. "No one has been hurt, and no one is trapped inside."
Engineers from the Transport Ministry are on-site to investigate the cause of the collapse and to ensure the rest of the tunnel is structurally sound. Although it wasn’t affected by the accident, the westbound portion of the Ville Marie was closed for inspection but has been re-opened.
“We won’t reopen the tunnel until we know it’s safe to use,” said Caroline Larose, a spokesperson for the Transport Ministry. “I can assure you the MTQ checks its structures, inspects them, repairs them has a $4 billion plan to invest in refurbishing them this year. Work is done to keep our infrastructure in shape.”
The concrete was a transversal beam installed directly over the roadway. It had been shaped into a grill-like structure with holes to allow light and air to filter into the tunnel.
At least one lane in the eastbound direction had been closed prior to the collapse as a result of repair work to the Tunnel’s walls. A tunnel linking the new CHUM hospital to the Champ de Mars metro station was being dug about 500 meters east of the where the beam collapsed. It remains unclear if the construction had anything to do with the concrete falling. There were workers on the site Sunday morning, but none of them were injured.
“Some of the people working here got quite a scare but we were all very lucky that there were no cars under the beam. It could have been much worse,” said Pierre Dacosta, who was working in the tunnel’s walls at the time of the accident. “You stay in shock a bit after it happened but it’s part of the job.”
Larose said that Transport Quebec conducts regular inspections on all highway infrastructure, but wouldn't say when the last inspection had been carried out.
Approximately 100,000 cars pass through the Ville Marie tunnel each weekday, said Larose.
Read more: http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Concrete+structure+collapses+Ville+Marie+tunnel/5186168/story.html#ixzz1TjMXvWot
Read more: http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Concrete+structure+collapses+Ville+Marie+tunnel/5186168/story.html#ixzz1TjMPGEvW
