Quebec has not estimated the cost of road congestion for the L.-H.-La Fontaine tunnel works, which will not end before 2025 and will cause major congestion.
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The cost of congestion includes greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and other pollutants released in congestion. In addition, there are in particular the costs of delays for drivers, wasted petrol or accelerated vehicle wear (tires and repairs).
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“The (transport) ministry did not make this assessment,” says his spokesman Gilles Payer.
According to him, greenhouse gas emissions will depend on people’s “response” to the various “Plan Bs” at their disposal, including public transport or teleworking. According to the government, it is investing more than 150 million US dollars in measures to reduce traffic congestion.
The ministry adds that it has been working to integrate these measures “for several years”.
Photo agency QMI, Thierry Laforce
Figures from… 2008
Over the years, studies have assessed the cost of metropolitan road congestion. The latest available estimates are from 2018 and are included in a LesAdvisors ADEC report prepared for the town of Laval. That report estimated the total cost at $4.2 billion.
This report actually creates an estimate based on a 2014 assessment of the same company for the Ministry of Transport of Québec (MTQ), but with data from 2008, when the surcharge was estimated at $1.8 billion and Montreal estimated took more than half of the pie.
These studies do not detail the implications for each infrastructure.
In the past, MTQ conducted a study on the costs of congestion every five years. Comparing 1993 data to 2018 data, it is calculated that congestion costs in the Montreal region have increased by more than 500%.
Photo agency QMI, Thierry Laforce
“We don’t want to know”
“The methodology is improving year by year, which might explain some discrepancies, but the trend is clearly up and growing much faster than GDP,” the company’s president told the journal. who has since become Gilles Joubert, Advisors.
“It is normal that no new infrastructure is built and public transport projects are delayed. So it cannot be improved,” he adds.
Mr. Joubert regrets that the latest accurate data is from 2008.
“There seems to be no appetite for the new congestion reality and especially the cost […] maybe we don’t want to know, he said. It surprises me and makes me a little sad.
Maintain climate neutrality target
Even if the work on the Louis-Hippolyte-La Fontaine tunnel is much larger than expected, the MTQ ensures that the site itself is carbon neutral.
That means trees are planted or carbon credits are bought to offset the greenhouse gases emitted during construction.
Car traffic and congestion are not included in this calculation and continue to be a very real source of pollution.
The tunnel construction site is one of seven CO2-neutral projects that MTQ is planning over the next few years. To date, only the Turcot Interchange construction site in Quebec has been carbon neutral.
“Since starting work 18 months ago [le consortium responsable] RLF has counted 4,500 tons of CO2 equivalent,” specifies Gilles Payer, spokesman for the ministry.
This corresponds to the GHG emissions of around 2,000 cars per year.
to plant trees
To offset these emissions, around 31,500 trees would have to be planted, according to an offset calculator by the Carbone Boréal research team at the University of Quebec in Chicoutimi. The consortium could also buy carbon credits from a green project.
“If the location lasts longer, which it will, then the remuneration will simply be adjusted accordingly,” specifies Mr. Payer.
Greenhouse gas offsetting is more complicated than it looks. As Le Journal pointed out last year, the Turcot interchange’s carbon neutrality is problematic. It will take a century before the 51,000 trees planted or about to be planted actually offset the emissions generated during the work.
In theory, carbon credits help reduce greenhouse gases because they are purchased by projects that produce renewable energy, such as a wind farm or a reforestation project.
In the case of the Turcot swap, however, most of the compensation was provided by buying credit from a hydroelectric project in India that caused multiple environmental damage, Le Journal had revealed.