The new Champlain Bridge is a 3km long bridge spanning over the Saint Lawrence River at the South-East entrance of Montreal, in the province of Quebec (Canada). The Champlain Bridge is one of the busiest bridges in Canada and plays an important economical role for its city as it is part of the main itinerary to the United States, accessible 60-km South.

Replacement of the older Champlain bridge

The New Champlain bridge will actually replace the existing Champlain bridge, commissioned in June 1962. The structure of the older bridge started showing signs of corrosion since 1994. After several temporary solutions to ensure safety of users and keep the bridge open, a new replacement project has been in the works since 2007. For some times the two bridges will be next to each other until the older structure is completely removed, with most of its structure planned to be recycled.

A focus on corrosion resistance

As the New Champlain Bridge is designed to operate at least 125 years and handle 50 million car crossing per year. Because of the relatively corrosive environment caused by the frequent de-icing on the road, a strong focus was made on the corrosion resistance of the structure with duplex stainless steel rebar being installeed in critical areas.

For this project, Dextra suggested the use Duplex Stainless Steel Rolltec couplers and anchors. This sub-range of our popular Rolltec solution substitutes the main products of our Rolltec range, coupler and anchors, by and improved alternative duplex steel version.

The Rolltec solution is well fit for the Canadian market and approved by the Quebec Ministry of Transport. With a single operator threading equipment and 30sec cycles, it is highly productive, which is ideal for high-labor cost countries such as Canada.

More than 10,000 Stainless Rolltec couplers have been delivered for this project, used mostly in the span of the bridge. Couplers were used to splice the reinforcement on large bars, from bar diameter 35M (#11) to 55M (#18), which is actually the largest diameter in our Rolltec range.

In addition, about 10,000 Rolltec stainless steel end anchors have been delivered, for sizes up to 55M (#18). The Rolltec Headed Bars are using the same thread system as the coupler, simplifying production.