Quote: (08-24-2015 02:28 AM)MrRoundtree Wrote:
Not really, everything was built in 1960-1970 with stupid building/concrete codes coming from Texas, which is kind of crazy considering the difference of weather there but engineers were not super aware of the consequences of frost/defrosting at the time and now it is starting to show. The Concrete Code and the Minister of Infrastructures requirements are much much stricter now that it was back in the days and numerous studies at École Polytechnique de Montréal were done and are still done on the subject. For exemple it is well known that the Champlain Bridge was badly designed and now they have to build a new one. This has nothing to do with the contractors.
The mafia are usually italian contractors working on smaller projects and nothing of grand scale. These guys never worked on the great dams of Quebec. It is true though that some of them are subcontractors on larger infrastructures but usually this doesn't affect the quality of the work if the EPCM firm knows what they are doing and apply the strict measures that didn't exist at the time.
Not trying to start a war over this, but one of my previous Hockey teammates use to manage a team of hookers so he dabbled in pretty much all the dirty facets of criminal life. On multiple occasions he confirmed to me that the construction business is 100% run by them, especially in the city of Montreal. No matter if the project is big or small, they have a say in it. Scotian is 100% right on this one, at least for the city on Mtl.