The Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine Bridge–Tunnel (french: Pont-Tunnel Louis-Hippolyte-La Fontaine) is a highway

bridge–tunnel A bridge–tunnel is a persistent, unbroken road or rail connection across water that uses a combination of bridges and tunnels, and sometimes causeways, and does not involve intermittent connections such as drawbridges or ferries. Bridge–tun ...

running over and beneath 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, connecting ...

. It connects the

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple- ...

borough of

Mercier–Hochelaga-Maisonneuve Mercier–Hochelaga-Maisonneuve is a borough of Montreal, Quebec, Canada located in the southeastern end of the island. History ''See Mercier and Hochelaga-Maisonneuve articles for a more detailed histories of respective areas'' Hochelaga was f ...

with the south shore of the river at

Longueuil Longueuil () is a city in the province of Quebec, Canada. It is the seat of the Montérégie administrative region and the central city of the urban agglomeration of Longueuil. It sits on the south shore of the Saint Lawrence River directly ac ...

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 thirte ...

. Named after

Lower Canada The Province of Lower Canada (french: province du Bas-Canada) was a British colony on the lower Saint Lawrence River and the shores of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence (1791–1841). It covered the southern portion of the current Province of Quebec ...

political reformer

Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine Sir Louis-Hippolyte Ménard '' dit'' La Fontaine, 1st Baronet, KCMG (October 4, 1807 – February 26, 1864) was a Canadian politician who served as the first Premier of the United Province of Canada and the first head of a responsible governmen ...

, the Lafontaine Tunnel is an immersed tube structure, measuring long. It carries the Autoroute 25 expressway and passes beneath the main

shipping channel In physical geography, a channel is a type of landform consisting of the outline of a path of relatively shallow and narrow body of water or of other fluids (e.g., lava), most commonly the confine of a river, river delta or strait. The word is ...

in the Saint Lawrence River immediately downstream from the

Saint Lawrence Seaway The St. Lawrence Seaway (french: la Voie Maritime du Saint-Laurent) is a system of locks, canals, and channels in Canada and the United States that permits oceangoing vessels to travel from the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes of North Ameri ...

. It surfaces on Île Charron ( Îles de Boucherville at entrance/exit #1 of Autoroute 25), then continues by

bridge A bridge is a structure built to span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or rail) without blocking the way underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, which is usually someth ...

to Longueuil. The bridge-tunnel sees about 120,000 daily crossings, of which 13% are trucks. Its construction began in 1963 and it opened on March 11, 1967.

History

In 1960, the construction of the

Trans-Canada Highway The Trans-Canada Highway (Canadian French, French: ; abbreviated as the TCH or T-Can) is a transcontinental federal–provincial highway system that travels through all ten provinces of Canada, from the Pacific Ocean on the west coast to the A ...

(TCH) through Quebec from the

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

border to

Rivière-du-Loup Rivière-du-Loup (; 2021 population 20,118) is a small city on the south shore of the Saint Lawrence River in Quebec. The city is the seat for the Rivière-du-Loup Regional County Municipality and the judicial district of Kamouraska. Its one of ...

was announced. In Montreal, to avoid having to build a huge bridge that would have disfigured the city and destroyed a neighbourhood, engineers opted for the construction of a tunnel located under the Saint Lawrence River and dug a

trench A trench is a type of excavation or in the ground that is generally deeper than it is wide (as opposed to a wider gully, or ditch), and narrow compared with its length (as opposed to a simple hole or pit). In geology, trenches result from ero ...

under the

river bed A stream bed or streambed is the bottom of a stream or river (bathymetry) or the physical confine of the normal water flow ( channel). The lateral confines or channel margins are known as the stream banks or river banks, during all but flood ...

and buried the tunnel sections to under the river bed. The Longue-Pointe church had to be demolished to make way for the tunnel, and 300 families were expropriated from the village in 1964. The construction was completed in March 1967, just before the opening of

Expo 67 The 1967 International and Universal Exposition, commonly known as Expo 67, was a general exhibition from April 27 to October 29, 1967. It was a category One World's Fair held in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is considered to be one of the most su ...

. Construction cost $75 million. A major four-year refurbishment of the tunnel began in 2020, originally planned to complete in 2024 at a cost of $1.2 billion, but in 2022 it was announced that the project would take a year longer than expected, completing in 2025 at a total cost of $2.1 billion.

Specifications

Each of the seven tunnel sections weighs , is long, wide and rises to a height of . In total, the bridge–tunnel is long. The tunnel was built with sections prefabricated in

dry dock A dry dock (sometimes drydock or dry-dock) is a narrow basin or vessel that can be flooded to allow a load to be floated in, then drained to allow that load to come to rest on a dry platform. Dry docks are used for the construction, maintenance, ...

and then sunk in the river, below the surface of the water. It is one of the largest

prestressed concrete Prestressed concrete is a form of concrete used in construction. It is substantially "prestressed" ( compressed) during production, in a manner that strengthens it against tensile forces which will exist when in service. Post-tensioned concreted ...

structures in the world and is the longest bridge-tunnel in Canada.

References

External links

Louis-Hippolyte Bridge–Tunnel (A-25) at Steve Anderson's montrealroads.com
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine Bridge-Tunnel Bridges in Montreal Bridge–tunnels in North America Transport in Longueuil Bridges over the Saint Lawrence River Tunnels completed in 1967 Bridges on the Trans-Canada Highway Tunnels on the Trans-Canada Highway Buildings and structures in Longueuil Mercier–Hochelaga-Maisonneuve Road bridges in Quebec Road tunnels in Quebec Immersed tube tunnels in Canada 1967 establishments in Quebec

History

Specifications

See also

References

External links