This 1060 m (3480 ft.) crossing over the south channel of the St. Lawrence River comprises a 548 m (1797 ft.) suspension bridge, with a main span of 275 m (900 ft.), and steel plate girder approaches.

B&T's Scope of Work:

Buckland & Taylor Ltd. (with McCormick Rankin) has been conducting annual condition inspections of the south channel bridge, from 1993 to present, and completed Phase I, II and III of the Allowable Load Study.

These studies, along with the inspections, identified several of the suspended span components to be substandard. Buckland & Taylor Ltd. developed and implemented designs for strengthening the substandard components (cable bents, cable clamps and stiffening trusses). For the strengthening of the stiffening truss, Buckland & Taylor Ltd. developed an innovative construction scheme which allowed the stiffening truss chords to be replaced without interruption to traffic.

In addition, we developed structural steel modifications to eliminate fatigue prone details from the deck stringers and designed the upgrade for the bridge traveler system to improve operational and safety conditions.

Buckland & Taylor Ltd. conducted structural capacity assessments in support of the major recoating program now underway. It was necessary to limit traffic to one lane to accommodate a construction loading that would allow the Contractor to conduct the work.