The Parti Quebecois government is pushing back the completion date for the Turcot Interchange until 2020.

Pauline Marois said the additional two-year delay in beginning construction, and the subsequent completion of the project, is necessary to ensure everything is done on the up and up.

The cost for the Turcot rebuild is currently estimated at $3.7 billion, and Marois said that will be the ceiling price, with the consortium that wins the bid to build being responsible for any cost overruns.

The firm and its subcontractors will also be vetted by the provincial Securities Commission (AMF - Authorité des marchés financiers) to make sure they are free from corruption, collusion, or fraud.

The 'final' designs released in May 2012 will also be tweaked to provide more room for public transportation, although exact details are not yet known.

However Marois said the Interchange must be rebuilt: it is too important to transportation in Quebec to do otherwise.

She also announced on Monday the government will devote an extra $40 million to public transportation and $60 million in urban planning for the Interchange rebuild.

The government appeared steadfast in its intent to make cost overruns the problem of the contractor rathan than taxpayer.

“The number at which the winning consortium will have chosen to bid -- when the bid is accepted -- that's the number the consortium will have to live with. If there are cost overruns, they will be at the expense of the consortium,” said Jean-François Lisee, Minister Responsible for Montreal.

And while that might seem like a useful strategy, one construction analyst notes that sometimes cost overruns cannot be avoided and the blame isn’t entirely clearly established.

“There are certain elements that change and that they were not really anticipated before that really takes it out of the entire realm of accountability,” said CISC Engineer Hellen Christodoulou. “If it's something that was not discussed, not foreseen, well certainly you cannot be accountable.”

Long delays in construction

The Turcot Interchange has been in terrible shape for years, and commuters have had to cope with numerous lane and ramp closures while crews repair seriously degraded concrete supports.

Transport Quebec has come up with several design changes in response to public and political pressure, including more green space and reserved lanes for transit.

The original cost was slated at $1.5 billion with construction due to begin in 2010 and last seven years. One thing that has remained consistent is the plan to lower much of the spaghetti snarl of raised lanes to ground level - or close to it.

Several community groups object to plans to expropriate some houses, and are calling for an interchange with a reduced capacity.

300,000 vehicles use the Turcot Interchange every day, ten percent of them heavy trucks transporting goods.

Some had hoped that the new design would limit some of that traffic.

“In terms of the amount of cars using the Turcot Interchange each day, and that means just as much pollution, just as much congestion as has always been the case in the project,” said Shannon Franssen of Mobilisation Turcot.

But at least one public transit official spoke favourably of the plan.

“This project takes into account the people you move instead of only the vehicles you move, so that's the first good thing,” said STM President Michel Labrecque.