MONTREAL—City work crews continued to remove sidewalks, planters and granite blocks on Thursday, rushing to alleviate pressure on a 40-year-old section of the Ville-Marie Expressway’s roof.

On Wednesday, CTV Montreal learned that Transport Quebec received a report in July warning that the structure—where Bleury St. and Place Jean-Riopelle were built over the buried highway—is at risk of collapse.

Ten per cent of the weight on the road and park—over 250 tonnes of trees, soil and granite—will need to be removed to help the structure survive.

Built between two hulking buildings, the Palais des Congres and the headquarters of the Caisse de depot et placement, few would realize that the park and neighbouring roads are perched over a busy highway.

When asked why the city was only removing weight, and not fixing the problem, Mayor Gerald Tremblay said on Thursday that Montreal would look at reinforcing the structure as soon as possible.

“If an engineer says that 10 per cent of the weight isn’t enough, well, let’s do more! Because it isn’t enough to say that it is secure, it’s the perception of the citizens,” said Mayor Gerald Tremblay on Thursday.

Calling Montrealers “victims of the past,” the mayor pointed at a long list of infrastructure projects in need of serious repair—this project has made that list longer.

Trucks with heavy loads have been restricted from driving on Bleury St.

“We made the analysis, we trust the results that we've got and we're taking some actions,” said Transport Quebec spokeswoman Caroline Larose. “It's not like we don't know the state of this overpass.”

Repair work is scheduled for 2013, after a winter that is bound to bring heavy ice and snow.

Concordia University engineering professor Adel Hanna said waiting months to repair the overpass is a troubling move.

“We can't afford to wait until a bridge collapses under its own weight as the Laval bridge, which collapsed just by itself, without any loads or any external effects,” he said.

Still, the MTQ insists the area is safe, claiming that if it were not, they would have closed the Ville-Marie and the road on top.