Jacques Cartier Bridge
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Jacques Cartier Bridge | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Carries | 5 lanes of Route 134 |
| Crosses | St. Lawrence River |
| Locale | Longueuil, Quebec and Montreal, Quebec, Canada |
| Maintained by | The Jacques Cartier and Champlain Bridges Incorporated |
| Design | Cantilever bridge |
| Longest span | 334.35 m |
| Total length | 2 687.42 m |
| AADT | 118,000 |
| Opening date | May 14, 1930 |
The Jacques Cartier Bridge (French: pont Jacques-Cartier) is a steel truss cantilever bridge crossing the Saint Lawrence River from Montreal Island, Montreal, Quebec to the south shore at Longueuil, Quebec,Canada.
Together with the Champlain Bridge, it is administered by The Jacques Cartier and Champlain Bridges Inc., a federal agency.
The Jacques Cartier Bridge was one of the design influences for the Story Bridge, in Brisbane, Australia, which was completed in 1930.
Contents |
[edit] Specifications
Construction was undertaken by the Dominion Bridge Company starting in 1925 and completed in 1930. It was opened to traffic on May 14th. Originally named the Montreal Harbour Bridge (pont du Havre), it was renamed in 1934 to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Jacques Cartier's first voyage up the St. Lawrence River. It was originally designed as a road, tramway, and pedestrian bridge. Tramway Tracks were never installed on the Jacques Cartier Bridge. A parallel empty space was to the right of the roadway in each direction, through which the bridge's girders could be seen. The two sidewalks were outside the bridge proper. The spaces for the tramway tracks were converted to roadways around 1959, adding an extra lane of traffic in each direction. There used to be a toll plaza on the south shore as the Jacques Cartier Bridge and the Victoria Bridge, upstream, were both toll bridges until 1960 or so. Tokens were issued. It is now a five-lane highway bridge of 3 400 m (11,236 ft) in length including the approach viaducts. There are approximately 43 million vehicle crossings annually, making it the second busiest bridge in Canada, the first being the Champlain Bridge, also in Montreal.
- Length of bridge structure: 2 687.42 m
- Length of main bridge: 590.35 m
- Length of centre span: 334.35 m
- Span lengths of support structures 128.00 m each
This bridge follows the general design concept of the Quebec Bridge.
The bridge crosses Île Sainte-Hélène in the centre of the river, where offramps allow access to the Parc Jean-Drapeau and La Ronde amusement park.
There is an 8-foot wide bike path and sidewalk on the western side of the bridge, and a pedestrian-only sidewalk on the eastern side. The bike path is part of the Route Verte bike path network. The sidewalk has a suicide prevention barrier.
There are four mini, 3 metre high Eiffel Towers at the four high-points of the bridge.
[edit] Bridge Modifications
During the construction seasons of 1957 and 1958, the span over the east channel of the St. Lawrence River (the Warren truss) was raised an additional 80 feet (to 120 feet). Traffic flow over the bridge was uninterrupted by this construction, through the installation of two Bailey bridges.[1]
[edit] Events
The bridge is completely closed to vehicular traffic during the fireworks competition at La Ronde during the summer. It becomes foot traffic only, sometimes drawing crowds of 50,000+.
The fireworks competition generally runs for about six weeks, from late June to the end of July. Events are held on Wednesday and Saturday nights, commencing just before 10:00 PM. Bridge traffic is closed as of 8:00 PM, and is re-opened when the bridge is cleared of pedestrians (usually between 11:00-11:30 PM).
The Jacques-Cartier Bridge is also closed to vehicular traffic for the Oasis Montreal Marathon which takes start on the bridge every year in early September.
[edit] Disruptions
Recently, this bridge has been shut down several times due to several protesters who have individually climbed on the superstructure of the bridge or on a sign in the Longueuil side of the bridge. Two of them were from the Fathers for Justice militant group, while a third claimed he was part of the group. Recently, a man wearing a Canadian flag climbed the structure of the bridge. Most of the protests led to massive traffic congestions during rush hour.
[edit] Gallery
 Jacques-Cariter Bridge from the Concorde Bridge |
 View from the bridge |
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Steve Anderson's MontrealRoads.com: Jacques Cartier Bridge (QC 134)
- Google Maps - Jacques Cartier Bridge
- Jacques Cartier Bridge in the Structurae database
[edit] References
|
||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||
