In these times of traffic jams and construction sites, the freshly installed asphalt on a section of the metropolitan highway will have to be completely redone in the coming months, due to the poor quality of the bitumen used.

This work will be carried out in weekend blitzes this spring and summer, the Ministère des Transports du Québec (MTQ) announced Thursday.

However, "road surface improvement" work had been carried out on this highway last year.

The ministry detected deficiencies in several places on the highway as early as last summer.

Analyzes then revealed that the bitumen used by the contractor was "of lower quality than that specified in the contract", reads the press release.

Traces of "bleeding" have indeed been observed, a phenomenon associated with too much bitumen and the risk of which is greater in hot weather.

The Roxboro Excavation contractor will therefore have to redo the pavement at his own expense.

According to our information, the origin of the problem came from "human error" on the part of one of the suppliers who supplied the contractor.

The contractor would have quickly contacted the ministry and set up a computer system so that such an error would not happen again.

At zero cost

The work will be done at zero cost to taxpayers.

The contractor also agreed to pay compensation of $820,000 to the ministry.

"Aware of the repercussions that the work will cause, the ministry thanks road users and residents for their understanding," said the MTQ in its press release.

The western sector of the highway, between chemin Canora and chemin de la Côte-de-Liesse, will be particularly affected since all the work will have to be redone there.

As for the eastern sector of the metropolitan area, from boulevard Provencher to boulevard Saint-Laurent, corrective work could be carried out if necessary.

For his part, the contractor Roxboro Excavation indicates that he cannot comment on the file publicly because of his agreement with the ministry.