Champlain Bridge (Montreal)

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Champlain Bridge
Carries	6 lanes of Quebec Autoroute 10, 15, 20
Crosses	St. Lawrence River
Locale	Brossard, Quebec and Montreal, Quebec
Design	Steel truss cantilever bridge

The Champlain Bridge (French: Pont Champlain) is a steel truss cantilever bridge with approach viaducts constructed of prestressed concrete beams supporting a prestressed concrete deck paved with asphalt. The bridge crosses the Saint Lawrence River and Saint Lawrence Seaway, connecting the Montreal boroughs of Verdun and Le Sud-Ouest to Brossard on the South Shore.

The bridge, with approaches, is approximately six kilometers in length. When the project began, the bridge was designated as the "Nuns' Island Bridge" because it crosses over Nuns' Island. In 1958, it was officially named the Champlain Bridge in honor of the explorer Samuel de Champlain who founded Quebec City in 1608.

1 Specifications
2 Construction History
3 See also
4 External links

[edit] Specifications

The bridge carries six lanes of vehicle traffic; three in each direction. During rush hour one lane in the (heading off the island in the morning, and onto the island in the evening) is used as a reserved bus lane for traffic heading in the opposite direction. Approximately 49 million vehicles cross the Champlain Bridge every year, and 196 million people making it the busiest bridge in Canada and one of the busiest in the world.

Total length of crossing complex: 14.5 km (47,712 ft or 9 miles)
Total bridge length including approaches: 7,412 m (24,312 ft)
- Length: abutment to abutment: 3,440 m (11,273 ft)
- Link of viaduct to Section 1: 2,195 m (7,200 ft)
- Center main cantilevered span: 215 m
- Wellington Street approach: 365 m (1,200 ft)
Bonaventure Expressway: 4,573 m (15,000 ft)

Just upstream from the bridge is an ice boom, the Champlain Bridge Ice Control Structure.

The bridge was originally built as a toll bridge. Tolls were in place from the bridge's first opening in 1962 through May 4th, 1990.

[edit] Construction History

On August 17, 1955, federal Transport Minister George Marler first announced the planned construction of a new bridge connecting Montreal to the South Shore via. Nun's Island. As well, the city's existing bridges (Victoria, Jacques Cartier and Honoré Mercier had become inadequate to support the amount of traffic that carried residents from the growing South Shore region into Montreal.

The National Harbour Board was placed in charge of the project. Through several lengthly meetings and consultations in the fall of 1955, they selected the location for the bridge and its approaches. Originally, the plan had been to build the bridge with only 4 lanes, with room to later expand the bridge to 6 lanes. However, during the design phase, it was decided to go with an initial 6-lane design immediately.

The bridge was opened on June 29th, 1962. At the time, the bridge had only one approach from Montreal, via Wellington Street. The section of the bridge that includes the approaches to/from Atwater Avenue and La Vérendrye Boulevard were opened two years later, on December 7, 1964.

In 1967, the final approach to the bridge on the Montreal side was completed when the Bonaventure Expressway was opened to traffic.[1]