Steel Bridges
In 1900 the Interprovincial Bridge (Alexandra Bridge) was built linking Ottawa and Hull. It is a steel bridge designed for both rail and road traffic and is still in use today.
The Quebec Bridge was completed in 1917 and still has the world's longest cantilever span. It is a steel railway bridge crossing the St. Lawrence River. Tragically it failed twice during construction. The report written by a royal commission formed to study the bridge failures has become a classic for structural engineering. ( more about the Quebec Bridge can be found on slides 22 to 29 in the PowerPoint Presentation entitled "The Ritual of the Calling of an Engineer", courtesy of Tony Howard, PEng. ) The Civil Engineering Department at Carleton University also has a web site dedicated to the Quebec Bridge.
The Lion's Gate Bridge is a suspension bridge built in 1938 to link Stanley park to West Vancouver. It has three narrow lanes of traffic.
Concrete Bridges
Reinforced concrete was introduced in the early 1900s for use in the building of highway bridges..
The Hunter Street Bridge at Peterborough, Ontario, is a concrete bowstring and simple arch bridge.
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The University bridge over the South Saskatchewan River (Saskatoon, Saskatchewan) was completed in 1916 and has 10 arch spans.
photo courtesy of Dr. R.Loov
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The emergence of prestressed concrete signalled the end of major reinforced concrete arch spans.
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Segmental construction using prestressed concrete allowed spans to be built longer than those using precast beams.
The Burlington Skyway in Ontario has a cast-in-place segmental main span.
photo courtesy of Roger Dorton
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Opening for traffic June 1997, the Confederation Bridge links New Brunswick to Prince Edward Island across the Northumberland Strait. It is currently the longest bridge in the world to cross ice-covered salt water. All the beams and piers were precast on site. Onsite evaluations were done to study ice load, wind load and ship impact.
photo courtesy of Dr. T. Brown
More about the Confederation Bridge
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Suspension Bridges
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The A. Murray MacKay Bridge spans the Halifax Harbour. The main span length is one of the highest in its span range in North America. They were able to do this by making use of a lightweight steel orthotropic deck. It remains the only suspension bridge on the continent which was originally built using this special type of deck. The orthotropic deck is now being used in the rehabilitation of old bridges.
photo courtesy of Roger Dorton
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Cable Stayed Bridges
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The Alex Fraser Bridge near Vancouver, British Columbia. In 1986 it was the longest cable stayed bridge in the world. It uses a composite steel beam and precast concrete slab deck system.
photo courtesy of Brian Allan
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Steel/Concrete Composite
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The Stoney Trail - Bow River Bridge in Calgary, Alberta won the international award for "Structural Engineering Excellence" in 1999. The bridge was constructed in an environmentally sensitive location with limited access. Possible fluctuations in temperature of 88 degrees Celsius also had to be considered in the design. It is believed to be the first ever twin-celled incrementally launched concrete bridge.
A pedestrian walkway is suspended under the bridge.
photo courtesy of Brian Allan
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Major Canadian Bridges
