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

  • Bridging the River Tisza
    February 7, 2012
    The Hungarian government has been investing heavily in extending and improving the country's motorway and trunk road network.
  • IRF announces 2012 GRAA Winners
    October 15, 2012
    Organisations behind the Rio de Janeiro's RJ122 project; the Kosovo Motorway project; and New York City's State-of-the-Art ITS Infrastructure Deployment Program were among the winners of the International Road Federation’s (IRF) 2012 Global Road Achievement Awards (GRAA) competition. This year's awards, whose winners were announced by IRF chairman and mayor of Riyadh, H.E Abdullah A. Al-Mogbel, honour nine projects from countries across the globe, each leading the way in innovation and excellence in its res
  • Official sale of M6 Toll to be launched in September
    August 23, 2016
    An information memorandum that will officially launch the sale of M6 Toll, the UK’s only toll road, will be sent out to interested buyers in September. No date is set for sending out the IM, according to sources, but the 43km six-lane asset around the English city of Birmingham could be going for slightly less after the UK’s European Union referendum vote in June. The result of the so-called Brexit – ‘British exit’ of the EU – referendum was won by the no-to-Europe side and the UK is now setting up t
  • Consorcio Panama Cuarto Puente wins fourth Panama bridge contract
    August 1, 2018
    Panama has decided to award a contract for the design and construction of a fourth bridge over the Panama Canal to Consorcio Panama Cuarto Puente. China Communications Construction Company and its subsidiary China Harbour Engineering Company are heading up the consortium for the US$1.42 billion project. Other consortia that put in bids included Dragados Sucursal Panamá and Astaldi-Daelim. News agencies report that the government initially chose the Chinese consortium in June but the final award was