Montrealers have become resigned to living on Cone-y Island. Ubiquitous orange cones, narrowed lanes, closed streets and circuitous detours are a way of life.

They’ve stopped complaining about the fact that Montreal’s busiest interchange (the Turcot, 300,000 vehicles daily) and its busiest bridge (the Champlain, 160,000 vehicles daily) are being rebuilt simultaneously.

But Montrealers were hoping and praying that, at the least, the city was on the mend and that the years of roadwork pain were almost over. The Champlain and Turcot projects should be done by 2020. And the city has spent so much time and money fixing crumbling streets and the sewer and drinking-water pipes under them that the work must be finished soon. Right?

No such luck. In late October, Montreal mayor Denis Coderre provided a grim prognosis on what remains to be done: eliminating the city’s infrastructure “maintenance deficit” will take another 10 years and cost $6.9 billion.

“It’s not ideal and you all have to live with the consequences on a daily basis,” Coderre told Montrealers. “All I can tell you is that you will also reap the benefits. We’ve already made considerable progress, and we can now see the light at the end of the tunnel.”

Too bad the tunnel is so long.

Coderre, elected mayor in 2013 and up for re-election next year, convincingly blamed his predecessors for the chaos.

Montreal’s decades-long neglect of infrastructure maintenance and upgrades has left streets and water pipes in a shambles. According to Montreal’s figures, 45% of streets are in poor condition. The same goes for 22% of sewers and 11% of water mains.

So, for Montrealers in cars, on foot and on bicycles, matters clearly will get worse – much worse – before they get better.

This year, a record 295 kilometres of roads, sewers and water mains were repaired or replaced, leaving much of the city in gridlock. Under Coderre’s plan, the city will work on more than double that much – 676 kilometres annually – for the next five years. For the second phase, that measure will be 466 kilometres per year.

The only silver lining: Coderre says no roadwork will be done on downtown streets in 2017, when a tourist influx is expected to celebrate Montreal’s 375th anniversary.

In advance of the blitz, Coderre promises to deal with some common roadwork irritants. He promises the city will actually co-ordinate roadwork with phone, cable, Internet, and electrical and natural gas utilities, meaning Montrealers won’t be left screaming after seeing roads ripped up by a private company days after the city has finished repaving. And he’s working on a plan to compensate business owners who suffer when roads are ripped up.

Coderre chose to announce his plan in a speech to the Board of Trade of Metropolitan Montreal, a business group that regularly complains about the cost of congestion to Montreal’s economy: $1.8 billion per year, or 1% of the region’s gross domestic product.

Board of Trade CEO Michel Leblanc applauded Coderre, saying he’s happy a detailed plan is finally in place.

Most Montrealers, however, are anything but happy.

© 2016 Investment Executive. All rights reserved.