New Champlain Bridge

Comprehensive Laboratory Testing Program to Ensure Concrete Mixture Designs are in Complete Compliance to Service-Life Requirements for the New Champlain Bridge

The Champlain Bridge is located in Montreal, Quebec. It is one of the busiest bridges in Canada and it is a critical corridor for the regional economy.. The bridge has reached the end of its service life and a new bridge is to replace the existing one. The new bridge of approximately 3.4 km (2.11 miles) in length is scheduled to be fully operational by the end of 2018. It will consist of three corridors including two three-way corridors for traffic and a two-way corridor for public transport. The new Bridge will also include a corridor for pedestrians and cyclists. The expected service life for the new bridge is 125 years for some of its most critical components. Through a public-private partnership with a Joint Venture, the Government of Canada intends to deliver a world-class project. The Joint Venture Signature sur le St-Laurent (SSL) has been retained to perform, the design and construction of the new Bridge over the Saint Lawrence.

At the time this was written, the new Champlain Bridge project is one of the largest infrastructure projects in North America. The corridor project not only includes the new Champlain Bridge, but also includes the construction of a new bridge for Île des Sœurs and the reconstruction and widening of a section of Autoroute 15.

SIMCO’s materials expert services were retained to perform the complete characterization of the concrete mixtures to be produced for various bridge elements.

The concrete producers that were selected by SSL Joint Venture for the construction of the new Bridge had to demonstrate that their concrete mixture designs would meet the 125-year service-life requirement. In order to do so, SIMCO’s services were selected to perform the complete characterization of the concrete mixtures that were designed in order to determine that all mixture designs would comply to the requirements established by SSL Joint Venture,.

SIMCO performed a series of tests on concrete samples in its very own ISO-certified laboratory. SIMCO also participated in the preparation of different concrete samples at the concrete plant and in SIMCO’s laboratory, as well as provided specialized technical assistance to the concrete producers during the production of the concrete mixtures.