Too early to speculate about overpass collapse: inquiry head

Theformer Quebec premierappointed to head the inquiry into the deadly Laval overpass collapsesaid work will begin immediately, with the team of investigators keeping an open mind about the possible causes of the disaster.

"It's too early right now to give any hypotheses," said Pierre Marc Johnson, who will visit the siteon Thursday.

The inquiry's mandate is to determine whatled to the collapse of the structure, which killed five people and injured six.

The former Parti Qubcois premier will be backed by two former presidents of the Quebec Order of Engineers, Armand Couture and Roger Nicolet, the government announced on Tuesday.

His selection has drawn criticism from some, including current PQ leader Andr Boisclair and former PQ premier Bernard Landry. Johnson resigned from the PQ in 1987, two years after a brief tenure as premier.

The perception of the critics is that Johnson's longstanding position as a member of a political elite could hinder the tough questions that need to be asked of previous governments.

The Montreal Gazette published an editorial Wednesday questioning the choice.

"Johnson will be called on to judge the actions or inaction of the province for the last few decades," the editorial said. "That would include Johnson's era when Quebec's roads and bridges saw much of their expansion. That is a vested interest, which in turn means his nomination places that interest in conflict with his mission."

Johnson said Wednesday his past would not be an issue.

Ive not been in partisan politics now for close to 19 years, so I feel Im a free man and I think thats the best assurance I can give my [fellow] citizens about the work we are going to do here, he said.

Johnson also fended off questions about hisposition as a board member for a cement company, and his role as counsel for the Montreal-based law firm Heenan Blaikie, which defends contracting companies.

Those commitments will not hinder his role in the inquiry, Johnson insisted. "My solidarity goes to [the] citizens, and this is going to be a transparent process."

Johnson said he will rely heavily on the expertise of the two senior engineers to help him understand the issues and what questions to ask of witnesses.

He added the inquiry will have three stages, which will include consultations with an array of experts, a public hearing and drafting a reportthat will include recommendations to the government.

"We want to really try and get a full idea of this catastrophe," he said.

Johnson earlierorderedtransport officialsand provincial police to stop clearing rubble from the site so that he and other investigators could examine the remains.

Officials had planned toremove the structure'sdebris starting late Tuesday.Provincial police were assisting clean-up efforts at the site, as part of their investigationinto the collapse.

Johnson promised that his team would conduct the on-site portion of the investigation quickly so that the collapsed overpasscould be demolished.

Provincial transport officials believe concrete samples from the overpasscouldhold clues toexplain the weekend accident.

Media reports in the days following the collapse suggested an initial analysis of the site's rubble found that steel appeared to be missing from inside the concrete structure.

Collapse was unusual, officials say

Anne-Marie Leclerc, Quebec's deputy minister of transportation, would not comment on the theory, but said the overpass collapse was unusual because the span did not break along normal fissure lines.

"Normally structures fail along their joints, but with de la Concorde we see from the photos that the thick concrete pillars that support the overpass broke," Leclerc explained.

Corrosion which was forwarded earlier as a possible explanation for the structure's deadly weakness has been ruled out, she said.

Transport officials have been examining the inner workings of another overpass, the de Blois span, because it has the identical design and was built at the same time as de la Concorde. The de Blois overpass could help explain why the de la Concorde span failed, Leclerc said.

De Blois also stretches over Highway 19, just a few hundred metres north of de la Concorde, and remained closed to traffic on Wednesday.

Five of 18 other Montreal-area overpasses examined Monday by government inspectors were found to require further inspection, and some will eventually need to be replaced, even though they pose no immediate safety problems, said Leclerc.

The inquiry report into the Laval overpass collapse is due by March 31 of next year.