The crossings between St. Jean and Iberville is steeped in history, dating back to 1775 when the Revolutionary American Army crossed the site in a ferry. Since 1915, a concrete structure was in place, after the initial wooden structure was destroyed in a flood. Although the concrete bridge lasted a century, it underwent decades of perpetual renovation. Harsh climate and liberal use of deicing chemicals on roadways make life quite difficult for bridges in this part of Canada. So, a new bridge was approved with the goal of limiting the expensive and traffic disrupting maintenance the current bridge was too well known for.

Pre-stressed concrete bridges are proving to be colossal failures in Quebec with hard to detect and impossible to repair corrosion of the tensioners. Older painted steel bridges provided longer life-spans, but not without the traffic snarls and serious economic and environmental costs of repeated repainting programs. The first fully hot-dip galvanized bridge in North America is located less than 100 miles away, and after 56 years as yet to require any maintenance of its galvanized components. In fact, recent testing has shown the zinc thicknesses still met minimum requirements for brand new product!

With this proven track record hot-dip galvanizing was chosen for all structural steel on this new bridge. The large modern galvanizing plants nearby made short work of the tonnage and their large kettles allowed even the largest beams to be galvanized in a single dip. The rugged, pure zinc coating and careful finishing by the galvanizer around all mounting areas insured rapid on-site assembly and erection.

This new and on time, $126 million bridge, now fully protected with the durable strength of galvanized steel will surely span this storied crossing long enough to see much history made during its watch.