CHAMPLAIN IS ON SCHEDULE
Builders say they expect it finished by December
It’s the last elements of the concrete piers. It’s a very complex piece to build, and that’s why we have to do it in a controlled environment.
Every day, roughly 1,000 people are on the site of the new Champlain Bridge, working nearly around the clock to build one of the widest bridges in the world within a short time frame.
“The government of Canada has asked for this bridge to be delivered by December 2018, and we’re absolutely committed to meeting that objective,” said Daniel Genest, the director of co-ordination for Signature on the St. Lawrence.
Speaking to reporters on the South Shore work site of the bridge, Genest said he isn’t going to cut corners on quality, because SSL, the consortium of companies building the bridge, also has to maintain it for 30 years, according to the $4.2-billion agreement reached with Infrastructure Canada.
“We’re about delivering a bridge on time, understanding it has to done in a safe environment and it has to be a quality bridge,” Genest said. “It has to be there for 125 years.”
Genest reported the work is 65 per cent completed, and said he’s confident he can meet the December deadline to open the bridge to traffic. He pointed out that, even though SSL won the contract to build the bridge in the summer of 2015, most of that year was spent preparing the site. Construction on the bridge itself only really began at the beginning of 2016. In that respect, being nearly two thirds completed on a three-year-long project with a year to go means the project is proceeding well.
Reporters got a look at the hightech concrete manufacturing facility built on the Nuns’ Island side to prepare the transition segments linking the bridge’s piers — the concrete legs jutting out of the water — to the steel pier caps, which support the roadbed.
Sylvain Tremblay, the manager of precasting and post-tensioning operations, explained that the pieces have to be assembled on site because, at 100 metric tonnes each, they’re too heavy to transport.
The bridge’s piers are built with several concrete pieces stacked one on the other, all with small holes inside for steel cables to tension all the pieces together. Tremblay explained the transition pieces are where the anchor heads of those post-tension cables will all be resting.
“It’s the last elements of the concrete piers,” Tremblay said. “It’s a very complex piece to build, and that’s why we have to do it in a controlled environment.”
The facilities where the concrete is poured look like gigantic threestorey-high tents. Inside, there are several chambers where the concrete is first poured, and then cured over a number of days in a chamber where the temperature reaches 70 C.
The concrete pieces are moved on rails to other chambers where the temperature is slowly decreased until they’re ready to be taken outside and placed on the piers.
A total of 44 transition pieces have been built out of 56 needed for the bridge. Most have already been installed.
There is much work left to be done, including the completion of the central pillar, which is expected to be completed in July, about two weeks behind schedule. The central pillar will support the steel cable that will hold up the central portion of the bridge, adjacent to the steel superstructure on the existing bridge.
Despite Genest’s assurances that the bridge will be open to traffic by December, Glen Carlin, the CEO of the Jacques Cartier Champlain Bridges Inc., charged with maintaining the old bridge, announced a $10-million project to keep up the bridge another six months is being prepared — just in case.
However, not everyone was confident the work will be completed on time. Michel Trépanier, the president of Le Conseil provincial (international) construction, the union that represents about half the bridge workers, said he’s skeptical the deadline can be met.
“I doubt it, and the workers doubt it, but they’re going to try their best to make it happen,” Trépanier said.
While the project’s managers added 200 more workers in the summer to accelerate the process, Trépanier said workers should have been added during the first year of construction, when it was clear the work would be delayed because of problems manufacturing the pieces, and delays transporting them to the site because heavy loads were banned on the old Champlain Bridge.
He blamed the consortium for not wanting to pay for the increased workforce.