Champlain will hold until June 2019

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An aerial view of the construction site of the new Champlain bridge and the current bridge, to the right.

Hugo Joncas

Thursday, 22-feb-2018 01:00

UPDATE
Thursday, 22-feb-2018 01:00

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The federal government should announce tomorrow that the old Champlain bridge will take at least six more months, while the new structure may not be ready in December, as promised.

At the request of Ottawa, the corporation of the Bridges Jacques Cartier and Champlain inc. (PJCCI) extends the life of the bridge until June 2019, at a cost of several tens of millions of dollars.

In the Face of difficulties that multiply to the constructor of the new passage between Montreal and the South Shore, Infrastructure Canada has sought to ensure that the 160,000 vehicles passing through each day the current bridge will still be able to do it.

According to our information, the Group Signature on the Saint-Laurent (SSL) should also announce that it will again increase the number of workers on the construction site to try to finish in time, after a first increase of 25 % last October.

The spokesperson Véronique Richard-Charrier returns of our questions about the old structure to the owner, the PJCCI. The agency, however, refused to answer questions from the Newspaper.

The SSL Group, the PJCCI and Infrastructure Canada should update the joint on the new Champlain bridge tomorrow morning.

In October last year, Ottawa was already considering such a measure because of the difficulties that accumulate in the construction of the new bridge, whose delivery is scheduled in December.

The federal government believed that the extension of the life of the current structure would cost $ 200 million a year and $ 250 million for another additional year.

Delays

The cabinet of the federal minister of Infrastructure, Amarjeet Sohi, the spokeswoman Kate Monfette refuses to confirm our information, but states that a one-year extension of the life span of the old bridge ” will not be necessary “.

In a lawsuit against Ottawa, SSL suggests that the timeframe to December 2018 may no longer hold because of delays due to weight restrictions on the old bridge.

In December, our Office of investigation, reported that the site was affected to thousands of defects in the parts manufacturer’s Tecade, Spain.

The strikes in the construction and the engineers of the State have also contributed to delays.