BAUER Foundations Canada Inc. builds bridge foundations in eastern Canada

Champlain Bridge in Montreal, Canada, is over 50 years old, and one of the most frequently crossed bridges in North America with up to 50 million vehicle crossings per year. Due to the extensive wear and prolonged road salt exposure over the years, a replacement of the bridge is now required. The 3.4-kilometer-long new Champlain Bridge across the St. Lawrence River is estimated to cost four billion CAD dollars and is thus among the largest infrastructure projects under construction in eastern Canada. BAUER Foundations Canada Inc. was commissioned with the foundation works for the two main structures – new Champlain Bridge and Nun's Island Bridge between Montreal and Nun's Island.

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Since October 2015, Bauer has installed a total of 200 concrete piles with diameters of 1,300 and 2,000 millimeters, ten of which were offshore in the St. Lawrence River – just one of the many technical and logistical challenges faced by the Bauer team. The ground conditions consisted of loose to very dense sand with occasional boulders, with pieces of rock, clay shale, bedrock and calcareous shale with a hardness of over 120 MPa.

Two Bauer drilling rigs, a BG 28 and a BG 39, were used for installing the piles with depths of up to 26 meters; the offshore drilling was carried out from barges. Additional concrete pumps were used to bridge the long distance from the shore to the pile location in the middle of the river. Part of the piles were drilled in the winter season, so special measures had to be implemented to allow working in temperatures as low as -25 degrees centigrade. In July 2016, BAUER Foundations Canada Inc. finished the work on schedule and to the complete satisfaction of the client.

With its impressive stay cable design, the six-lane new Champlain Bridge shall also have separate pedestrian and bicycle lanes. It is designed for a useful life of 125 years and is expected to carry up to 60 million vehicles per year. The opening is planned for 2018.