Location

Montreal, Quebec

Client

The Jacques Cartier and Champlain Bridges Incorporated

Delivery

2020 2024

Contract type

Design-build, in consortium

Project

Meticulously disassemble the original Champlain Bridge, Canada s busiest bridge, that spans the St. Lawrence River and its seaway over 3.4 kilometres. It was replaced by a new structure in 2019.

The deconstruction work aims for Envision recognition, that provides a framework for assessing the sustainability and resiliency of civil infrastructure.

Challenges

Meet the highest standards in terms of health and safety, environmental protection and social acceptance.

Avoid interference with commercial ship traffic and other major work in the area.

Solutions

Reclaim, repurpose and ensure the traceability of the vast majority of materials: 250,000 tonnes of concrete, 25,000 tonnes of steel and 12,000 tonnes of asphalt.

Minimize the impact on nearby residents with a traffic management plan, monitoring of air quality, noise and vibration, as well as constant communication.

On the jetty of one of the shores, build two fish migratory corridors and reduce greenhouse gases by optimizing truck routes.

Innovations

Develop an immersive 4D simulation tool linked in real time to schedule data to easily show the sequence of upcoming work.

Build a catamaran barge equipped with a system of six lifting towers on which the deconstruction platform rests to safely dismantle the structure by limiting work at heights, and efficiently manage debris and wastewater, thereby protecting the river.

Progress

In just a few hours after two years of design, coordina- tion and planning the colossal 2,200-tonne steel span was detached, lowered 33 metres to the river s surface and towed against the current for 3 kilometres to be dismantled and recycled.

This phase marked the project s midpoint: 26 of some 50 spans between the bridge piers (or its legs ), 14 piers and 4 footings (the submerged portion of the piers) as well as the structure supporting the bridge s abutment on one of the shores were all deconstructed on the catamaran barge.

A unique operation in Canada

Removal of the main span of the original Champlain Bridge

57