Champlain Bridge lane may reopen by the end of this week
But strip reserved for inbound buses will likely remain suspended until spring
A closed lane on the Champlain Bridge may reopen as early as the end of this week, providing relief for drivers heading to the South Shore.
But it doesn’t look like the morning reserved bus lane will reopen until the spring.
The right-hand south bound lane has been off limits since Nov. 12, when a dangerous crack was found on a beam under part of the bridge.
Since then, the morning reserved lane for South Shore buses heading to Montreal has been suspended. It uses a lane on the southbound side.
Over the Nov.30-Dec.1 weekend, a 75-tonne steel brace — dubbed a super beam — was installed to reinforce the fissured Champlain beam.
But one lane was left closed because the super beam took up more than one metre of a lane’s width.
That lane should reopen before the end of the year.
“If all goes well, it will be done by the end of the week,” said Jean-Vincent Lacroix, a spokesman for the federal Jacques Cartier and Champlain Bridges Inc.
Along the super beam, lanes will be narrowed and barriers installed. That work should be completed in the coming days, depending on the weather, Lacroix said.
Trucks will continue to only be allowed in the lefthand southbound lane, which will be slightly wider than the other two lanes.
As for the bus lane, Lacroix said it “will be very difficult” to reopen the Montreal-bound lane because of the new narrower lanes.
On Nov. 22, the bridge authority revealed that the original, two-millimetre-wide crack had lengthened.
Two smaller, parallelc racks that are 0.2 millimetres wide had also formed. In addition, cracks were developing at the beam’s edges.
Since the super beam was installed just over two weeks ago, “the situation has remained quite stable, no new cracks,” Lacroix said.
The super beam is replacing most of the support previously provided by the cracked beam, he said.
In early spring, the bridge authority plans to install a modular truss under the cracked beam.
That truss will act as a sort of external skeleton for the problem beam, providing reinforcement from below. Once the truss is in place, the super-beam is to be removed.
It appears that only then will officials be able to reopen the Montreal-bound bus lane, which is used by about 450 buses on weekdays.