The new 3.4 km Champlain Bridge over the St. Lawrence River connects the United States with Canada. The work was built in less than four years and offers astonishing figures: 74,000 tons of steel, 93,000 cubic meters of concrete and 25,000 tons of asphalt. It is one of the most important transportation infrastructure construction projects in North American history. The length of the cable stay is 364 meters while the total length of the bridge is 529 meters without counting the access viaducts. There are also 8 lanes for cars and an urban train line on the board.
The Champlain Bridge supports one of the highest levels of traffic in Canada, since it exceeds 60 million vehicles per year and constitutes one of the main accesses to the Island of Montreal on its eastern side. Its location constitutes a vital strategic point; It is one of the main commercial exchange routes with the United States.
It is therefore an emblematic work and is the first bridge in Canada to be awarded the platinum award for sustainable infrastructure, granted by the ‘Institute of Sustainable Infrastructure’.
At this point, the reader of this post will wonder, what relationship does this news have with the Europa Group?
The answer is: a great and very special relationship. We tell them.
From our business division, European Advisor, we act “in this project as global coordinators of the operations for the two manufacturers of bridge parts based in the industrial hub of the Port of Seville: Tecade and Megusa,” says Álvaro Barranco, fiscal-legal responsible and customs representative of the European Group in the capital of Seville.
Álvaro Barranco was the project manager of an operation that he remembers “as one of the most rewarding professional experiences I have had. It was about coordinating and ensuring the loading and maritime transport of the enormous pieces of steel built in Seville, to Montreal, in vessels that, in the first and last phase, we chartered on behalf of the clients and also chartered by the responsible UTE itself. of the construction of the bridge, a pull of first-class international companies among which was the Spanish ACS.”
The coordination efforts included the customs procedures for exporting to Canada the unique central pieces that would be located between two pillars, a total of 37 of these double structures, an operation that also represented a very special challenge for the Europa Group technical team that was involved in this project.
The construction of this macro infrastructure can be seen in this complete television report:
https://www.rtve.es/play/videos/somos-documentales/gigante-rio/6224710/