Montreal speeding up repairs to ageing infrastructure

Montreal is investing $531 million in upgrades to the city's ageing watermains,roads, sidewalksand reservoirs in 2016.

"There's no question we need to invest in our infrastructure," said Montreal executive committee memberLionel Perez. "We need to speed up the work."

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The money will go towards400 worksites across the city.Nearly half of the funds will go directly to the city's water network to rehabilitate 65 kilometres of watermains and sewers and other improve water pressure in six places.

The breakdown includes:

• $200 millionfor roads,sidewalks, roadstructures, traffic lights, street lights.
• $190 millionfor thewatermain and sewernetwork.
• $62 millionfor "major projects" in the water network.
• $79 millionfor roadwork.

• See an interactive version of the map

This year, a new pilotproject will be rolled out on St-Denis Street on the Plateau, where local residentsand businessowners areenduring a maze of construction work.

The street will get asystem that uses Bluetoothtechnologytodetect in real time how long it takes for cars to cross through the construction zone. The time will be displayed on signs nearby, to inform drivers of the expected wait time and help reduce traffic jams.

"Itshows we're trying different ways to accommodate and minimize the impact on our citizens," said Perez.