Champlain Bridge, Cable-stayed bridge over the Saint Lawrence River in Brossard and Montreal, Canada
The Samuel-De Champlain Bridge stretches 3.4 kilometers (2.1 miles) across the Saint Lawrence River, linking Nuns' Island in Montreal to Brossard with eight traffic lanes. The cable-stayed structure features a central tuning-fork tower rising 170 meters (558 feet) above the water.
Construction began in June 2015 to replace the original 1962 structure, which had deteriorated and could no longer handle growing traffic demands. The official opening took place on June 28, 2019, marking completion of one of Canada's largest infrastructure projects.
The name was announced on 19 December 2018 by infrastructure minister François-Philippe Champagne, honouring the French explorer Samuel de Champlain. At the official ceremony on 28 June 2019 a bronze bust of Champlain was unveiled, intended for installation on the structure, and a Mohawk elder gave a blessing.
The bridge carries eight lanes of the A-10, A-15 and A-20, with one bus lane in each direction. The northbound deck is wider and holds a multi-use path for cyclists and pedestrians, opened on 23 December 2019. The REM light metro runs on the central deck, not below the roadway.
The main tower is shaped like a tuning fork and rests on twenty-one drilled piles, each 1.2 metres in diameter. The northbound deck is wider than the other two so it can hold the multi-use path, which makes the cable-stayed span asymmetric across its width as well as along its length.
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