Saint John Harbour Bridge
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The Saint John Harbour Bridge is a hollow box, haunched girder bridge crossing Saint John Harbour at the mouth of the Saint John River in Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada.
[edit] History
Saint John's industrial and residential growth required a second bridge over the Saint John River by the mid-20th century. The Reversing Falls Bridge was inadequate for handling modern traffic growth, however concern over where a new highway and bridge would cross the river frustrated the project for many years. On May 1, 1961 the city's Common Council appointed a 6-member citizens' committee which then directed various studies and discussions.
On April 13, 1962 the New Brunswick legislature passed an act to establish a Saint John Harbour Bridge Authority that would build, maintain and operate a toll bridge crossing Saint John Harbour. Contracts for the four main piers were signed in September 1965 and the crossing opened on August 17, 1968 as part of the Saint John Throughway project.
The bridge's location proved quite controversial as it prevents high-clearance vessels from navigating into the upper part of the harbour. Earlier proposals had called for the Saint John Throughway and its bridge to be built north of the Reversing Falls gorge.
The bridge carries 4 lanes of Highway 1 across 3 spans, measuring 125 m, 250 m, and 125 m. The bridge was a cooperative project of the federal, provincial and municipal governments. Because the agreement of all three layers of government is required to change the bridge toll, the toll of $0.25 for 2-axle vehicles has remained unchanged from the bridge's opening in 1968. The Harbour Bridge Authority has, however, requested approval to increase the toll to $0.50 effective in January 2007 [1].
