The Honoré Mercier Bridge in
Quebec
Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...
, Canada, connects the
Montreal borough
The city of Montreal is divided into 19 boroughs (in French, ''arrondissements''), each with a mayor and council.
Powers
The borough council is responsible for:
*Fire prevention
*Removal of household waste and residual materials
*Funding of com ...
of
LaSalle on the
Island of Montreal
The Island of Montreal (french: Île de Montréal) is a large island in southwestern Quebec, Canada, that is the site of a number of municipalities including most of the city of Montreal and is the most populous island in Canada. It is the main ...
with the
Mohawk Mohawk may refer to:
Related to Native Americans
*Mohawk people, an indigenous people of North America (Canada and New York)
*Mohawk language, the language spoken by the Mohawk people
*Mohawk hairstyle, from a hairstyle once thought to have been t ...
reserve of
Kahnawake
The Kahnawake Mohawk Territory (french: Territoire Mohawk de Kahnawake, in the Mohawk language, ''Kahnawáˀkye'' in Tuscarora) is a First Nations reserve of the Mohawks of Kahnawá:ke on the south shore of the Saint Lawrence River in Quebec, C ...
,
Quebec
Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...
and the suburb of
Châteauguay
Châteauguay ( , , ) is an off-island suburb of Montreal, in southwestern Quebec, located both on the Chateauguay River and Lac St-Louis, which is a section of the St. Lawrence River. The population of the city of Châteauguay at the 2021 Cens ...
on the south shore of the
Saint Lawrence River
The St. Lawrence River (french: Fleuve Saint-Laurent, ) is a large river in the middle latitudes of North America. Its headwaters begin flowing from Lake Ontario in a (roughly) northeasterly direction, into the Gulf of St. Lawrence, connectin ...
.
It is the most direct southerly route from the island of Montreal toward the
US border. It carries
Route 138, originally
Route 4. It is in length and contains four steel trusses on its first section. The height of the bridge varies from to with the highest sections located over the
St. Lawrence Seaway. The bridge is named after former
premier of Quebec
The premier of Quebec ( French: ''premier ministre du Québec'' (masculine) or ''première ministre du Québec'' (feminine)) is the head of government of the Canadian province of Quebec. The current premier of Quebec is François Legault of the ...
Honoré Mercier
Honoré Mercier (October 15, 1840 – October 30, 1894) was a Canadian lawyer, journalist and politician in Quebec. He was the ninth premier of Quebec from January 27, 1887, to December 21, 1891, as leader of the Parti National or Quebec Libera ...
.
Unique in Quebec, the bridge is managed by both the federal and provincial governments. The southwest portion of the bridge, over 1,031 metres (1128 yards) from the beginning of the arch bridge (at pile14), is the responsibility of a Crown corporation: the Jacques Cartier and Champlain Bridges Incorporated (JCCBI). The rest of the bridge (902 meters, 986 yards) is owned by the Quebec Ministry of Transport, which is also responsible for the day-to-day operations of the complex, including the federal part.
The bridge has two lanes of traffic in each direction and a total span of nearly two kilometres (1¼ miles). At its highest point, the bridge rises 36 metres (120') above the river. There is a narrow sidewalk on the side headed to
Châteauguay
Châteauguay ( , , ) is an off-island suburb of Montreal, in southwestern Quebec, located both on the Chateauguay River and Lac St-Louis, which is a section of the St. Lawrence River. The population of the city of Châteauguay at the 2021 Cens ...
that was for use by foot or bicycle, but it has not been open since major repairs began in 2009. The roadway has been characterized by numerous repairs.
It is estimated that an average of 75,000 vehicles use the bridge each day. An estimated 30 million vehicles use the bridge every year.
History
![Feature](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ad/Feature._Bridge_Caughnawaga._Mercier_BAnQ_P48S1P16552.jpg)
Before the bridge was built there was a
ferry
A ferry is a ship, watercraft or amphibious vehicle used to carry passengers, and sometimes vehicles and cargo, across a body of water. A passenger ferry with many stops, such as in Venice, Italy, is sometimes called a water bus or water taxi ...
service.
The bridge, known in the developmental stage as the "Saint-Louis Bridge" (for the nearby located
Lake Saint-Louis
Lake Saint-Louis is a lake in southwestern Quebec, Canada, at the confluence of the Saint Lawrence and Ottawa Rivers. The Saint Lawrence Seaway passes through the lake.
Lake St. Louis is a widening of the St. Lawrence River in the Hochelaga Arch ...
and the parish of Saint-Louis-de-Caughnawaga, today part of the Kahnawake reserve), was designed by eleven French-Canadian engineers, all graduates of the
École Polytechnique de Montréal
École may refer to:
* an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée)
* École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France
* École, Savoi ...
, and was built by the
Dominion Bridge Company
Dominion Bridge Company Limited was a Canadian steel bridge constructor originally based in Lachine, Quebec. From the core business of steel bridge component fabrication, the company diversified into related areas such as the fabrication of holdin ...
Ltd under a government-funded work program. Construction of the bridge began in November 1932 and was completed in the early summer of 1934. It was opened to traffic on June 22, 1934 (named "Honoré-Mercier" during its inauguration by mayor Taschereau, 10 months ahead of schedule with a toll of 50 cents for an automobile and driver—later reduced to 25 cents. Today there is no toll charged for crossing the bridge.
The original east approach was on Lafleur Avenue, which ran straight into the
Gauron Bridge
'' Full Metal Panic!'' is a series of light novels written by Shoji Gatoh and illustrated by Shiki Douji running from 1998 to 2011. The series follows Sousuke Sagara, a member of the covert anti-terrorist private military organization known as ...
over the
Lachine Canal
The Lachine Canal ( in French (language), French) is a canal passing through the southwestern part of the Island of Montreal, Quebec, Canada, running 14.5 kilometres (9 miles) from the Old Port of Montreal to Lake Saint-Louis, through the boroug ...
.
The higher section over the Saint Lawrence Seaway was added in the late 1950s. In August 1963, the Quebec Department of Public Works approved the construction of a "second" bridge downstream from the first. This increased the number of lanes from two to four.
Oka Crisis
During the
Oka Crisis
The Oka Crisis (french: links=no, Crise d'Oka), also known as the Kanehsatà:ke Resistance (), was a land rights, land dispute between a group of Mohawk people and the town of Oka, Quebec, Canada, which began on July 11, 1990, and lasted 78 day ...
in July and August 1990, the bridge was closed to all traffic for over a month by Mohawks who supported their brothers from
Kanesatake
Kanesatake (''Kanehsatà:ke'' in Mohawk) is a Mohawk (''Kanien'kéha:ka'' in Mohawk) settlement on the shore of the Lake of Two Mountains in southwestern Quebec, Canada, at the confluence of the Ottawa and Saint Lawrence rivers and about west of ...
. This closure period led to violent tempers and clashes between Mohawks and people from Châteauguay, and the extension of
Autoroute 30 bypassing the Kahnawake reserve. As a compensatory measure, the Champlain Bridge Boom was opened to motorists and a
temporary rail shuttle was introduced.
Mohawks in Support of the Caledonia Group
During the
Caledonia land dispute
The Grand River land dispute, also known as the Caledonia land dispute, is an ongoing dispute between the Six Nations of the Grand River and the Government of Canada. It is focussed on lands along the length of the Grand River in Ontario known a ...
, certain individuals from Kahnawake erected Warrior and Confederacy flags on the steel trusses of the bridge to show their support.
The bridge was closed for a short period, in order to allow several men from the community to climb the structure and secure the flags. To ensure their safety, the Kahnawake Peacekeepers stopped traffic from the Kahnawake side of the bridge, while the Quebec Provincial Police blocked access on the Lasalle side. Several weeks later one of the Warrior flags was removed from the bridge and replaced with a Quebec flag (the red Warrior flag is barely visible in the above picture between the first 'V' section of the truss).
On June 29, 2007, community members of Kahnawake staged a peaceful protest on the bridge, in support of the AFN's National Day of Action. Once again men from the community placed Warrior and Confederacy flags on the structure that spans the St. Lawrence Seaway.
Maintenance
The Jacques Cartier and Champlain Bridges Incorporated (JCCBI) (in French: Ponts Jacques Cartier et Champlain Incorporée, PJCCI), a federal
Crown corporation
A state-owned enterprise (SOE) is a government entity which is established or nationalised by the ''national government'' or ''provincial government'' by an executive order or an act of legislation in order to earn profit for the governmen ...
, is responsible for managing, operating and maintaining the Mercier Bridge where it crosses the Mohawk Reserve of Kahnawake. This comprises the ramps leading to the bridge on the south shore ("Ramps" Sector), the span over the St. Lawrence Seaway ("Seaway" Sector), and the stretch above "Ile Maline" ("B1 Island" Sector). The Ministry of Transport of Quebec (MTQ) is responsible for the bridge where it crosses the St. Lawrence River ("B2" Sector).
Rehabilitation Project
2009 saw the start of a complete rehabilitation of the bridge, the largest ever undertaken in Canada. For the first time since 1934, the deck of the Mercier Bridge was partially replaced. The work is expected to prolong the bridge's life for another 75 years. The bridge deck was replaced using prefabricated concrete deck panels. The new deck consists of more than 1,300 prefabricated concrete panels assembled with steel tension cables. In total, the new deck is an area of 40,684 m2 (10 acres). Numerous lane closures and redirection of traffic continued until work was completed. The project has been carried out in two parts: Phase A, replacement of the deck in the Ramps Section and Phase B, replacement of the deck in the B1, Seaway, and Mixed Sections.
Phase A was handled by Kahnawake's Mohawk Bridge Consortium.
Phase B was originally to be done by Pomerleau-de Mathieu Bard, but problems led to the removal of the contractor. The works were then completed by the Mohawk Bridge Consortium. The eight-year work on the federal part, led by contractor, Mohawk Bridge Consortium, was completed by the end of August 2016. A total of 982 new concrete panels were installed at a cost of $200 million.
Emergency closure
The Quebec Ministry of Transport (MTQ) initially planned to renovate the section of the bridge under its jurisdiction at the same time and in the same manner as the federal section. On June 14, 2011, due to the extreme deterioration of 10 gusset plates, the 1930s section of the Mercier bridge was closed until September 6 (in time for school restart).
Engineers examined each gusset and designed an individual solution of either replacement or reinforcement aimed as a permanent solution, not a patch.
Regular inspections found the gussets to be corroded beyond what was expected. Using all known weaknesses of the bridge structure, the engineers undertook a complete recalculation of the load bearing ability of the structure. Once they calculated that and factored in a margin for safety, they decided to close the bridge at 8:04 PM on June 14, 2011.
The reinforcement of existing structures was staggered until 2013. In 2014, an in-depth study was commissioned to a consortium of BPR, Genivar and SNC-Lavalin firms to determine the optimal solution for the future of the section. Provincial Bridge: Major Rehabilitation or Reconstruction.
In April 2017, the Quebec government announced the construction of a new section towards the South Shore of Montreal. The date of the beginning of the work is not determined.
See also
*
List of crossings of the Saint Lawrence River
This is a list of bridges, ferries, and other crossings of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, Saint Lawrence River, and Great Lakes, by order of south shore terminal running from the Gulf of Saint Lawrence upstream to Lake Superior.
Crossings
Quebec
Lo ...
*
List of bridges in Canada
This is a list of bridges and viaducts in Canada, including those for pedestrians and vehicular traffic.
Historical and architectural interest bridges
There are only a few covered bridges left in Canada compared to all those that were built in t ...
*
List of bridges in Montreal
Like most major cities, Montreal needs easy highway access from its suburbs and surrounding areas. However, because Montreal was built on Island of Montreal, an island surrounded by three rivers, it can be entered by land only on a bridge or throu ...
References
External links
Official page*
*
360º video on YouTube
{{DEFAULTSORT:Honore Mercier Bridge
1934 establishments in Quebec
Bridges completed in 1934
Bridges in Montreal
Bridges over the Saint Lawrence River
Former toll bridges in Canada
LaSalle, Quebec
Road bridges in Quebec
Through arch bridges in Canada
Bridges in Montérégie