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Champlain Bridge
Carries	6 lanes of Autoroute 10, 15, 20
Crosses	St. Lawrence River
Locale	Brossard, Quebec and Montreal, Quebec
Design	Steel truss cantilever bridge
Total length	7,412 m (24,312 ft)
Width	Six lanes
Toll	free

The Champlain Bridge (French: Pont Champlain) is a steel truss cantilever bridge with approach viaducts constructed of prestressed concrete beams supporting a prestressed concrete deck paved with asphalt. The bridge crosses the Saint Lawrence River and Saint Lawrence Seaway, connecting the Montreal boroughs of Verdun and Le Sud-Ouest to Brossard on the South Shore.

The bridge, with approaches, is approximately six kilometers in length. When the project began, the bridge was designated as the "Nuns' Island Bridge" because it crosses over Nuns' Island. In 1958, it was officially named the Champlain Bridge in honor of the explorer Samuel de Champlain who founded Quebec City in 1608.

Contents 1 Specifications 2 Construction history 3 Replacement of Champlain Bridge 4 See also 5 External links 6 References

The bridge carries six lanes of vehicle traffic; three in each direction. During rush hour one lane (heading off the island in the morning, and onto the island in the evening) is used as a reserved bus lane for traffic heading in the opposite direction. Approximately 49 million vehicles cross the Champlain Bridge every year, and 196 million people making it the busiest bridge in Canada and one of the busiest in the world.^{[citation needed]}

• Total length of crossing complex: 14.5 km (47,712 ft or 9 miles)
• Total bridge length including approaches: 7,412 m (24,312 ft)
  • Length: abutment to abutment: 3,440 m (11,273 ft)
  • Link of viaduct to Section 1: 2,195 m (7,200 ft)
  • Center main cantilevered span: 215 m
  • Wellington Street approach: 365 m (1,200 ft)
• Bonaventure Expressway: 4,573 m (15,000 ft)

Just upstream from the bridge is an ice boom, the Champlain Bridge Ice Control Structure.

The bridge was originally built as a toll bridge. Tolls were in place from the bridge's first opening in 1962 through May 4th, 1990.

On August 17, 1955, federal Transport Minister George Marler first announced the planned construction of a new bridge connecting Montreal to the South Shore via. Nun's Island. As well, the city's existing bridges (Victoria, Jacques Cartier and Honoré Mercier had become inadequate to support the amount of traffic that carried residents from the growing South Shore region into Montreal.

The National Harbour Board was placed in charge of the project. Through several lengthly meetings and consultations in the fall of 1955, they selected the location for the bridge and its approaches. Originally, the plan had been to build the bridge with only 4 lanes, with room to later expand the bridge to 6 lanes. However, during the design phase, it was decided to go with an initial 6-lane design immediately.

The bridge was opened on June 29th, 1962. At the time, the bridge had only one approach from Montreal, via Wellington Street. The section of the bridge that includes the approaches to/from Atwater Avenue and La Vérendrye Boulevard were opened two years later, on December 7, 1964.

In 1967, the final approach to the bridge on the Montreal side was completed when the Bonaventure Expressway was opened to traffic.[1]

This article or section contains information about a planned or proposed future bridge. It may contain speculative information; the content may change as the construction or completion of the bridge approaches.

On September 20, 2007, a major French-language Montreal daily published a story about Federal Government plans to build a new 10-lane span next to Champlain Bridge rather than face the increasing maintenance cost of the aging structure^[1] The information was denied by government officials the next day.^[2]

In October 2007, a private firm, Novaroute revealed a plan that would construct a two-story tunnel bridge under the Saint Lawrence River that would also collect tolls based on the time period. In Novaroute's plan, one level will be for buses and trains while the second will be for regular vehicles except tractor-trailers. The tunnel will be built under a public-private- partnership and will take five years to be completed. [2]

• List of crossings of the Saint Lawrence River
• List of bridges
• List of bridges in Montreal

• Champlain Bridge (Jacques Cartier and Champlain Bridges Incorporated, Government of Canada)
• Steve Anderson's MontrealRoads.com: Champlain Bridge (A-10, A-15, and A-20)
• Champlain Bridge in the Structurae database

Bridges of the St. Lawrence River
Upstream Honoré Mercier Bridge	Champlain Bridge	Downstream Victoria Bridge

v • d • e Streets in Montreal, Quebec
North-South Streets:	Crescent Street • Decarie Boulevard • Jacques-Cartier Place • Parc Avenue • Boulevard Laurentien/Boulevard Marcel-Laurin • Saint Denis Street • Saint Lawrence Boulevard
East-West streets:	de la Commune Street • Gouin Boulevard • Henri Bourassa Boulevard • Jarry Street • rue Jean Talon • Crémazie Boulevard • Sauvé Street • Avenue du Mont-Royal • de Maisonneuve Boulevard • Notre Dame Street • Prince Arthur Street • René Lévesque Boulevard • Saint Catherine Street • St. James Street • Saint Paul Street • Sherbrooke Street
Expressways (Autoroutes):	10 (Autoroute Bonaventure) • 13 (Autoroute Chomedey) • 15 (Autoroute des Laurentides) • 19 (Autoroute Papineau) • 20 • 25 (Autoroute Louis-H-Lafontaine) • 40 (Autoroute Métropolitaine) • 520 (Chemin de la côte-de-liesse) • 720 (Autoroute Ville-Marie)
Highways (Routes):	Route 112 (Bridge & Mountain) • Route 117 (Laurentian & Marcel Laurin) • Route 125 (Pie-IX) • Route 138 (Rue Sherbrooke) • Route 335 (St. Denis)
Bridges and Tunnels:	Pont Champlain • Pont Charles-De Gaulle • Pont Galipeau • Pont Honoré-Mercier • Pont Jacques-Cartier • Pont L'Île-aux-Tourtes • Pont-tunnel Louis-H.-La Fontaine • Pont Médéric-Martin • Pont Papineau-Leblanc • Pont Victoria
Roads in Canada