LONGUEUIL, QUE. -- A new phase of deconstruction of the former Champlain Bridge, which linked Montreal and the South Shore for 57 years, will begin in the coming weeks: the removal of the bridge's piers and underwater footings.
The Jacques Cartier and Champlain Bridges Incorporated (PJCCI) explained that the operation will require a new method of deconstruction.
It will be carried out using specialized excavators mobilized on barges measuring 210 feet by 144 feet that will serve as a work surface to pull out the concrete debris to the pier dock on Nuns' Island on the Montreal side.
The piers of the old structure will be deconstructed from top to bottom using hydraulic hammers installed on the excavators.
During the work, the barges will be grouped together so that the deconstruction debris can be recovered without any impact on the environment and, subsequently, reused in the material recycling process.
For the removal of the footings, two barges will first be used to confine them.
Then, excavators equipped with GPS positioning systems will extract the footings under the St. Lawrence River, down to the level of the seafloor.
The operation will then be repeated for the 34 footings of the La Prairie Basin.
Once the deconstruction is complete, the empty spaces left by the footings on the riverbed will be filled with stone.
Removal of the original Champlain Bridge spans began some time ago.
At the end of last month, JCCBI announced that a dozen spans had already been removed using a custom-built mega-barge capable of supporting up to 4,800 tons.
The original Champlain Bridge was decommissioned on June 28, 2019, 57 years after its inauguration.
In the summer of 2020, JCCBI announced that work on its deconstruction would be carried out until the winter of 2024 at an estimated cost of $400 million.
-- This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on Oct. 11, 2021.
