MONTREAL - Thirty-one Quebec bridges and overpasses where inspections were ordered by a provincial inquiry need major repairs or replacement, the provincial transport minister said Friday.
Julie Boulet said 75 of 135 structures ordered examined have been checked and that the third phase of the massive inspection program should be finished by the end of the month.
Of the 55 bridges and overpasses examined in the second phase of the inspection, 21 need major work and 10 need repairs or replacement as the result of their first inspection. Five other structures need repairs of a level not yet decided.
The cost of the inspections, which was 80 per cent done by the private sector, will cost about $3.5 million.
Four of the 75 structures inspected have been closed to traffic.
Boulet said that work on three of the structures will begin in the spring of 2008.
The inspections were sparked by a provincial inquiry into the collapse of an overpass in Laval, Que., in September 2006 that left five people dead.
