Nearly 2,000 faulty parts and defects found on new Champlain Bridge: report

Dec 5 2017, 10:15 pm

With time winding down to complete the new Champlain bridge, workers have had to make thousands of repairs to its parts and structure.

According to a report by Le Journal de Montreal, repairs have been made to 2,000 key parts.

Workers have had to deal with bad welding, holes and cracks in steel and metal plates and poorly made bolts. Most of the bad parts are being manufactured in Tecade, Spain.

The St. Lawrence Signature Consortium is overseeing the construction of the bridge. The consortium responded to the report claiming that “no permanently installed components are defective.”

“Nonconformities are part of the fabrication process,” said the consortium in a statement. “We have thousands of components manufactured in different plants and on the complete lot, there may be some that present technical challenges or nonconformities. The resolution and processing of these are an integral part of the process of continuous improvement of the quality of our methods and processes.”

Construction crews are reportedly scrambling to complete the new Champlain Bridge by December 2018.

Over 800 workers are now on the job, and the construction site is open for nearly 20 hours a day, six days a week.

Once the new bridge is completed, the old one will be demolished in 2019 and will take four years to take down.

The new $4.2-billion bridge is expected to last for 125 years.

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