Skip to main content

Canada: work officially starts on Montreal’s Champlain Bridge

Canada’s infrastructure minister, Denis Label, officially broke ground for Montreal’s replacement Champlain Bridge, saying the project will likely cost US$3.42 billion. The 3.4km Champlain Bridge Corridor Project, including spans and highway expansions, is expected to be completed by 2019. SNC-Lavalin, the 50% stakeholder in the winning consortium Signature on the Saint-Lawrence, recently announced it had finalised the deal with new Champlain Bridge owner Infrastructure Canada. Signature on the Saint-
June 25, 2015 Read time: 3 mins
Canada’s infrastructure minister, Denis Label, officially broke ground for Montreal’s replacement Champlain Bridge, saying the project will likely cost US$3.42 billion.

The 3.4km Champlain Bridge Corridor Project, including spans and highway expansions, is expected to be completed by 2019.

SNC-Lavalin, the 50% stakeholder in the winning consortium Signature on the Saint-Lawrence, recently announced it had finalised the deal with new Champlain Bridge owner Infrastructure Canada. Signature on the Saint-Lawrence will design, construct, finance, operate, maintain and rehabilitate. SSL has entered into a date-certain, fixed-priced contract of around $2.15 billion and the concession period runs October 2049.

The partnership of SNC-Lavalin, 2758 Flatiron and 4761 Dragados Canada are responsible for construction of the project. Consortium equity providers include SNC-Lavalin Capital, 917 ACS Infrastructure Canada and 981 HOCHTIEF PPP Solutions North America. The project is designed by T.Y. Lin International, International Bridge Technologies, SNC-Lavalin and MMM.

The existing bridge – a steel cantilever truss structure built in 1957 – spans the St. Lawrence River which flows from the Great Lakes and is the route for ocean-going ships to reach cities including Chicago deep in the interior of northern North America.

The old bridge is also one of the busiest crossings in the country, carrying between 40-60 million cars, trucks and buses a year. As well, over 11 million transit users travel across it annually. In terms of Canada-US trade, more than $16 billion worth of goods and services use the corridor annually.

The new Champlain Bridge is expected to feature a three-corridor design, including two three-lane corridors for vehicles and a two-lane public transport corridor capable of accommodating a light rail transit system. It will also have a multi-use path for pedestrians and cyclists.

Canada-based Canam-Bridge recently announced it had won the contract to fabricate the superstructure for the new bridge, for which the company expects to use around at least 45,000tonnes of steel.

In a separate statement, ACS said it had secured financing for its work, according to Spanish media. Private finance for the project includes a long-term bond issue in two series subscribed to by HSBC Securities and National Bank Financial.

The short-term finance during the construction period will include bank debt of $1.16 billion, through a syndicate of National Bank of Canada, Bank of Tokyo-3055 Mitsubishi UFJ, Bank of Nova Scotia, Caisse Centrale Desjardins du Quebec, 2714 Sumitomo Mitsui, HSBC Bank Canada, Toronto-Dominion Bank and Bank of China.

There will also be capital contributed by shareholders of the consortium. The public finance portion of the funding will come through three payments associated with the achievement of targets in the project.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Shortlist of three to build UK's Mersey toll bridge
    May 18, 2012
    The shortlist of three bidders for the €707 million (£600 million) plus Mersey Gateway Project in North West England as been revealed. The first bidder is the Balfour Beatty, Bouygues Travaux Publics, Egis Projects consortium. The second bidder is Merseylink consortium, comprising equity members Macquarie Capital Group, Bilfinger Berger Project Investments, Vialia Sociedad Gestora de Concesiones de Infraestructuras and FCC Construcción. Completing the bidding trio is MGL consortium, comprising equity membe
  • Collaborative approach is delivering the Queensferry Crossing
    March 28, 2017
    The Queensferry Crossing forms the centrepiece of a major upgrade to the cross-Forth transport corridor in the east of Scotland. It will be the longest three-tower, cable-stayed bridge in the world and represents a Scottish Government capital investment of more than €1.5 billion. The 2.7km Queensferry Crossing is alongside the Forth Road Bridge and will carry the M90 motorway across the Firth of Forth between Lothian, at South Queensferry, and Fife, at North Queensferry. Each of the three towers are 207m
  • Financing model confirmed for German Autobahn
    June 27, 2016
    The refinancing package for Germany’s A8 Autobahn has now been formalised. The section of the A8 runs between Ulm and Augsburg in the south of Germany and is operated by concession firm Pansuevia, a 50:50 partnership between HOCHTIEF and STRABAG. The 58 km section of the A8 between Ulm and Augsburg was opened to traffic on schedule in September 2015 after four years of construction. PANSUEVIA designed, financed, and carried out the widening of the section to six lanes and took over maintenance and operation
  • Hot stuff in Canada from Road Dryer’s RD-1200 XT
    July 4, 2019
    Road Dryer, a US-based manufacturer of road drying equipment, has expanded its coverage into eastern Canada with the appointment of a dealer. Montreal Tractor (MTI) and its sister company Hot Mix & Aggregate (HMA), both based in Baie D'Urfé near Montreal in the province of Quebec, now exclusively represent Road Dryer’s pavement-drying units. They cover is Quebec as well as the provinces of Ontario, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland. Both dealerships offer new, used and reb