This is a replica of the reinforced concrete girders which make up the deck of
Confederation Bridge. Given the size of this girder and the bridge's length of about 8 miles, it would require about 4,200 of these to build the entire bridge. Opened May 31, 1997, the bridge partially replaced a ferry service which, until the completion of the bridge, was PEI's only connection with the outside world.
The bridge required approximately 20,000 man years of construction and more than five thousand skilled tradesmen, at a total cost of just over one billion dollars. Building a bridge in this location, where ice covers the straight 5 months of the year was a unique challenge, resolved by engineers who developed a 52 degree conical ice shield located on each pier, causeing the ice to break up. The design of the ice shields actually lifts the ice flow up, causing it to breaks under its own weight and continue flowing past the piers without causing damage.
See bridge facts and descriptions below.
Confederation Bridge
The Confederation Bridge joins the eastern Canadian provinces of Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick, making travel throughout the Maritimes easy and convenient. The curved, 12.9 kilometre (8 mile) long bridge is the longest in the world crossing ice-covered water, and more than a decade after its construction, it endures as one of Canada’s top engineering achievements of the 20th century.
The decision to replace the existing ferry service with a fixed link followed a heated debate throughout the 1980’s. Farmers, fishermen, tourism operators, and residents of Prince Edward Island had sharply contrasting opinions about how year-round access to the mainland would affect their way of life and livelihood. Eventually, it was decided that the debate would be settled at the polls. The federal department of Public Works and Government Services selected its favourite bridge design out of several proposals from the private sector, and on January 18, 1988, Premier Joseph Ghiz asked Prince Edward Islanders to make the final decision in a plebiscite. At the polls, 59.4% of Islanders voted “Yes” to a fixed link.
After four years of construction using crews of more than five thousand local workers, the Confederation Bridge opened to traffic on May 31, 1997, at a total construction cost of one billion dollars.
Today, the Confederation Bridge is operated by Strait Crossing Bridge Limited, headquartered in the shadow of the bridge in Borden-Carleton, Prince Edward Island.
Design
Because of its phenomenal length, the Confederation Bridge uses a multi-span concrete box girder structure. Designed by a consortium headed by a joint-venture of J.Mueller International and Stantec (formerly known as SLG Consulting), the award-winning, 12.9 kilometre-long structure consists of three parts: the 1.3 kilometre-long West Approach Bridge leaving New Brunswick’s Jourimain Island, over 14 piers; the 0.6 kilometre-long East Approach Bridge leaving Borden-Carleton, Prince Edward Island, over 7 piers; and the 11 kilometre-long Main Bridge which joins the approach bridges, resting on 44 piers.
Engineers incorporated a number of safety features into the bridge design including: graceful curves to ensure drivers remain attentive, and to reduce the potential for accidents that experts believe happen more often on straight highways or bridges; a road surface made of a special long-lasting bituminous mixture that minimizes vehicle spray during wet weather; 1.1 metre-high concrete barrier walls that minimize visual distraction and serve as a windbreak; and more than 7,000 drain ports that allow for the runoff of rainwater and melting snow and ice.
Construction
Construction, the majority of which was carried out at on-shore staging facilities, began on October 7, 1993. Crews at the staging facility in New Brunswick created components for the approach bridges using pre-cast concrete in steel forms, while the main bridge components – including pier bases, shafts, main girders and drop-in girders – were produced on the opposite side of the Northumberland Strait, at the staging facility in Prince Edward Island.
Once the precast components were complete in July 1995, the forms were transported by water to the bridge site and assembled in place by a twin launching truss with a one-of-a-kind travelling gantry crane called the Svanen.
Construction crews reached an important milestone in August 1996, when the P22, or Navigation Span, was set in place by the crane, marking the halfway point of the bridge. On November 19, 1996, shortly before midnight, the last component of the Confederation Bridge was placed; construction of the approach roads and toll plaza, and final work on the structure continued until May of 1997.
From Confederation Bridge