Public Notice

Construction of the Former Welland Canal Crossing - Public Comments Invited

May 11, 2021 – Infrastructure Canada and Transport Canada must determine whether the proposed Construction of the Former Welland Canal Crossing project, located in Welland, ON is likely to cause significant adverse environmental effects.

To help inform this determination, Infrastructure Canada and Transport Canada is inviting comments from the public respecting that determination. All comments will be considered public. For more information, individuals should consult the Privacy Notice on the Registry website (https://iaac-aeic.gc.ca/050/evaluations/Protection?culture=en-CA).

Written comments must be submitted by June 10, 2021 to:

Lily Comeau, Environmental Review Officer, Infrastructure Canada (lily.comeau@canada.ca)

The Proposed Project

The City of Welland proposes to re-establish a Bridge crossing of the Old Welland Canal along the Forks Road alignment within the City of Welland, Regional Municipality of Niagara. A single-lane bridge once existed at this location and was removed in the spring of 2019 as it was determined to be unsafe to use. The former concrete piers remain in place and through a recent assessment, it was determined that they will require remediation work in order to support a new bridge and sustain a service life of an additional 75 years.

Re-establishment of the bridge will include both in-water and on-land activities. The conceptual design includes rehabilitation of existing piers by way of removing accretions of "mussels" and debris from the existing piers and repairing the face of the piers using techniques such as crack injection and installation of steel jacketing in addition to removing and reconstructing the upper 3.0 m of concrete on the existing two piers. In addition, the approach spans, which are the areas between the piers and shoreline, will be infilled.  The infill area will be contained between the pier and the shoreline by corrugated steel sheet piles. Due to the existing ground conditions, it is anticipated that a 6 month pre-consolidation period will be required for the infilled approach spans to allow for settlement to take place.

Construction methodology will generally be left to the discretion of the contractor; however, due to the nature of the site, it is possible that work may be conducted from a barge, from temporary infill areas, or use of a temporary bridge (trestle) system.

Document Reference Number: 1

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