More than 300 people from Verdun and Brossard attended Transport Canada’s pre-consultation about replacement plans for the Champlain Bridge last weekend. Many were worried that their homes might be expropriated for the project.

“We were happy to say that no one will be expropriated,” said Marc Brazeau, Transport Canada’s acting director general for major bridge projects.

Residents were also relieved that project specifications include the necessity to keep traffic flowing across the St. Lawrence for the full ten-year duration of construction. The replacement bridge will be constructed 10 metres to the north of the current span so that the two structures now in place (the one between mainland Verdun and Nun’s Island and the main one between Nun’s Island and Brossard) can be dismantled in sections.

Business owners will be equally relieved to hear that Transport Canada also intends to ensure that the St. Lawrence Seaway remains operational for the duration of the project.

Many of the other questions that members of the public had for the engineers, biologists and other professionals at fifteen different kiosks can’t yet be answered. In part, that’s because this series of consultations are actually pre-consultations required under an environmental review that was revised earlier this year.

Most of the people answering questions are independent experts that were hired by Dessau Cima +, a consortium of engineering companies with almost 3,000 employees in Quebec. The firm is majority-owned by Laval-based Dessau Capital Inc. Each expert must submit a report of recommendations to be considered by the company hired to build the bridge.

The biologists at the event said that they plan to recommend that dismantling be timed to enable the peregrine falcon that nests on the bridge to relocate onto the newer structure.

Twenty or so nests of brown snakes won’t be so lucky. They’ll have to be moved, despite mixed research on whether such relocations can succeed.

Note: This article appeared on page 23 of the city edition of the Suburban on Wednesday, December 12.

December 7, 2012

Transport Canada’s Open Houses about Champlain Bridge Replacement

Specialists from Transport Canada are in Verdun for the next four days to answer questions about the replacement for the Champlain Bridge.

They will be in the Borough Council Room, 4555 Verdun St.tonight, Friday, December 7 from 6 p.m. until 9 p.m. and tomorrow, Saturday, December 8 from 2 p.m. until 5 p.m.

They will also be at the Elgar Community Centre, 260 Elgar St. on Nun’s Island on Sunday, December 9 from 2 p.m. until 5 p.m. and on Monday December 10 from 6 p.m. until 9 p.m.

Two reports are available on the website: the 12-page preliminary environmental assessment at http://www.ceaa-acee.gc.ca/050/documents_staticpost/65574/83529-eng.pdf and the 70-page summary report at http://www.ceaa-acee.gc.ca/050/documents/p65574/83678E.pdf.

“The new bridge for the St. Lawrence will be built approximately 10 metres downstream (to the north) of the Champlain Bridge in order to minimize the impact of the new route on Nuns’ Island, facilitate temporary installation work during construction, facilitate the connection to the existing transportation network and protect the temporary structures from ice. The study area identified for the project covers an area around the existing and planned bridges that is sufficiently broad to take into account the potential direct and indirect effects that the project may cause.”

Those effects include ten years of transportation, recreation and ecological frustrations because two bridges need to be completely replaced.

These open house sessions are the first consultation sessions in the environmental assessment process. Written submissions can also be sent until January 15, 2013.

“We will take these comments into consideration during the next steps of the environmental assessment,” says the website.

A second series of open houses will be held in the spring.

Note: My initial report linked to the general website: www.ceaa-acee.gc.ca. Readers told me this wasn’t useful enough.

Note: This article appeared on page 1 of the Suburban on December 5.