Samuel-De Champlain Bridge

The Samuel-De Champlain Bridge, colloquially known as the Champlain Bridge, is a cable-stayed bridge designed by architect Poul Ove Jensen and built to replace the original Champlain Bridge over the Saint Lawrence River in Quebec, between Nuns' Island in the borough of Verdun in Montreal and the suburban city of Brossard on the South Shore. A second, connected bridge links Nuns' Island to the main Island of Montreal. It is the second busiest bridge in Canada, behind only the Port Mann Bridge in Vancouver, carrying approximately 137,000 vehicles/day annually. The new span is located just north of the location of the original Champlain Bridge, demolition of which began as soon as the new bridge was completed. The new bridge carries eight lanes of automobile traffic of the A-10, A-15, and A-20, with one lane in each direction dedicated for buses. It also includes a multi-use lane for cyclists and pedestrians. The central portion of the bridge deck carries the South Shore branch of the Réseau express métropolitain (REM) automated light metro system. At 60 metres (200 ft) wide, the new Bridge is the widest cable-stayed bridge in the world that uses two planes of cables and one of the widest bridges of any type in the world. It is one of the largest infrastructure projects ever built in North America and with an estimated 59 million vehicles a year, one of the busiest crossings on the continent. It is built to last 125 years with the usage of stainless steel and high-performance concrete, and replaces the previous 57-year-old bridge, which had become functionally obsolete, as well as its structure having been degraded by the repeated application of de-icing salt.