NEW QUEBEC BRIDGE

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3197, 22 September 1917, Page 7

NEW QUEBEC BRIDGE

CENTRAL SPAN PLACED IN POSITION WONDERFUL ENGINEERING FEAT Montreal, September 20. The central span of the new Quebec bridge has been placed in position, alter tho greatest engineering feat of its kind. It took three days to lift the span from the pontoons, and the work went off without a. hitch. The bridge was the 6ceiie of disasters in 1907 and ISMC.-j-Aus.-iN.Z. Cable Assn. L'l'lie new bridge over the St. Lawrence River, eight miles above Quebec, has Seen built for the Canadian Government by tho St. Lawrence Bridge Company of Montreal. The cost of the structure was originally estimated' at .£1,750,000. and the bridge is the largest contract of this character that has been undertaken so far by a purely Canadian engineering company. The total length' of the bridge is 82W feet, and its span over tho river-measures 1800 feet. This stretch is covered by two eaiiGlever members connected by a suspended span CIO feet long, 88 feet wide, and 110 feet deep, and weighing over 5000 tons. An attempt to construct a- bridge at this point failed through the collapse of the structure in 1907. The St. Lawrence Company signed its contract for the new bridge in 1911. with hopes of' completing *ne work in 1914, but the work was delayed by various causes. Then a- second disaster occurred last September. The bridge is of extraordinary construction, inaaniuch as the central span, destined to be placed between the cantilever? more than IQO feet above the river, was built separately on pontoons. This vast structure, over 5000 tons in weight, had to be floated out into the river and then hoi6ted off the pontoons to its proper place. In the hoisting rrocess one of the four suspensions gave way, and the whole structure fell into (he St. Lawrence, causing considerable loss of life. Tlie bridgo company set to work immediately to make good tlie damage at its own expense, and has completed the work in just a year, after the disaster.}