2019: A Replacement Bridge in Quebec Makes Its Formal Debut

June 28, 2019

In the Canadian province of Quebec, a dedication ceremony took place for the Samuel De Champlain Bridge in the Greater Montreal Area. This cable-stayed bridge, crossing the Saint Lawrence River, serves as a link between Nnns’ Island, part of the borough of Verdun in the city of Montreal; and the municipality of Brossard on the South Shore. (The South Shore is the general term for suburbs of Montreal on the southern shore of the Saint Lawrence River.) This structure replaced a nearby steel truss cantilever bridge that had been opened in 1962 and was also named after explorer and navigator Samuel de Champlain (1567-1635).

The current version of the Champlain Bridge was designed by Danish architect Paul Ove Jensen (born in 1937). The building of this bridge, which turned out to be one of the largest infrastructure projects ever undertaken in North America, began on June 16, 2015. The new Champlain Bridge was opened to northbound/westbound traffic on June 24, 2019; that date in the calendar year is Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day, which is a holiday in Quebec.

Those on hand for the official dedication of the bridge four days later included François-Philippe Champagne (born in 1970), Canada’s minister of infrastructure and communities at that time. During the ceremony, Champagne emphasized how the new bridge would stay open year-round for not only motor vehicles but also bicyclists and pedestrians. The Champlain Bridge was subsequently opened to southbound/eastbound traffic on July 1, which is Canada Day (a public holiday throughout the country).

The present-day Champlain Bridge has a total of eight lanes for carrying the motor vehicle traffic of Autoroute 10, Autoroute 15, and Autoroute 20, with one lane in each direction reserved for buses. This bridge, which is one of the busiest crossings in North America, also contains a multi-use lane for bicyclists and pedestrians.

Photo Credit: Cornellier (licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share 4.0 International license at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en)

For more information on the current version of the Champlain Bridge in the Greater Montreal Area, please check out https://structurae.net/en/structures/samuel-de-champlain-bridge