Following the collapse of a huge section of the Morandi Bridge in Genoa, Italy on Tuesday, you may be wondering how well a popular nearby bridge nearing the end of its life is doing.
According to the crown corporation (JCCBI) responsible for maintaining the Champlain Bridge, it's fine.
In a statement issued Wednesday, the Jacques Cartier and Champlain Bridges Incorporated said "the Champlain Bridge is reinforced, monitored, stable and safe."
While the Bridge has suffered premature degradation caused by corrosion thanks to what ended up being an inadequate drainage system and the use of de-icing salts, engineer and CEO of JCCBI Glen P. Carlin, said the 60 million annual users of the bridge have nothing to worry about.
"Since the deployment of our edge girder and pier cap reinforcement program, the sensors which continuously monitor the behaviour of this structure, confirm that the Champlain Bridge is very stable," Carlin said.
Currently, 31 of the 39 pier caps have been reinforced, the other eight will be completed by the end of September. The bridge is also equipped with 335 sensors that continuously monitor the bridge. If anything pops up out of the ordinary, Carlin said crews can get to work on it right away.
"In addition to the monitoring and reinforcement measures deployed, we carry out quarterly inspections on the Champlain Bridge, which we are vigilantly managing."
The New Champlain Bridge is scheduled to open by the end of this year.