Quebec’s bridges are well protected if a boat ran directly into one of them, as happened Tuesday in Baltimore, according to experts consulted by The newspaper.
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Quebecers who fear that such a catastrophe will occur here can rest easy.
On the St. Lawrence River, where freight boats pass, the only place where boats must avoid pillars is when they cross the Laviolette bridge, in Trois-Rivières.
This infrastructure, which was once vulnerable to boat collisions, was secured with riprap around the piers in the 1980s.
Protective structures are clearly visible around the pillars of the Laviolette bridge, in Trois-Rivières.
Photo taken from the Quebec government website
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“There is no danger on the Laviolette bridge. For the two bridges in Quebec, namely the Quebec Bridge and the Pierre-Laporte Bridge, the pillars are close to the shore and cannot be reached by ships. Finally, in Montreal, there is a waterway, so the bridges are protected [car les bateaux ne croisent pas de piliers]», concludes Mr. Fafard.
The St. Lawrence Seaway passes under the Samuel-De-Champlain Bridge, without ever crossing its pillars.
Archive photo
“It’s important to reassure the population; a similar event could not occur in Quebec. […] The structures of our bridges are protected by riprap or are outside the maritime routes,” the office of the Minister of Transport and Sustainable Mobility, Geneviève Guilbault, indicated on Tuesday.
All commercial vessels arriving in the St. Lawrence must also be supported by captains who are experts in navigating the river, underlines the cabinet.
It must be planned
“It’s a condition that we take into consideration when we design a bridge, the impact of a boat,” summarizes Bruno Massicotte, professor in the Department of Civil, Geological and Mining Engineering at Polytechnique Montréal.
Normally, protective structures adapted to the weight of passing boats are built around the piers to prevent any collision.
This can take the form of piles of rocks, as is the case around the pillars of the Laviolette Bridge in Trois-Rivières.
Design error?
“The goal of the structure is that it is destroyed to absorb the energy or that it causes the ship to deviate from its course,” explains Mario Fafard, a retired civil engineering professor.
John Zimmerman, a former worker who worked at the time on the construction site of the Baltimore bridge which collapsed, indicated to the television channel CNN that there are nevertheless concrete “bumpers” around pillars, but that the ship seems to have hit a more vulnerable part.
“It probably hit the weakest part of the bridge,” he said. I am in shock. I didn’t believe the bridge was ever going to collapse.”
Mr. Fafard nevertheless believes that such a scenario should not arise. “It’s a mistake somewhere on the part of the authorities in the United States,” he believes.
“It seems that it was underestimated,” adds Mr. Massicotte. If it was correct by calculation, it will call into question the calculation methods we use.”
– With TVA News