Accelerated Bridge Construction to Serve Communities in the Context of Climate Change
2025–2026 Call for Proposals for Resilient and Sustainable Infrastructure
Description
Quebec has nearly 9,000 bridges, about one-third of which are short-span bridges (less than 20 m), mostly steel-and-wood structures. These infrastructure projects play a vital role for rural, northern, and Indigenous communities, which often depend on a single road link.
Although simple and inexpensive to build, these bridges have several major limitations:
- limited durability, particularly of the wooden components;
- frequent and costly maintenance, including regular inspections;
- Prolonged closures during construction, which could completely cut off certain communities.
These challenges are exacerbated by climate change, which leads to:
- more frequent and more intense floods;
- insufficient existing hydraulic openings;
- increased vulnerability of the abutments, which are often damaged or washed away.
As a result, current solutions fail to meet climate resilience needs or ensure the rapid restoration of critical infrastructure. It is therefore essential to rethink the design of small-span bridges to make them more durable, more efficient, and quicker to deploy.
Objectives
- Develop an optimized prefabricated deck. Design a deck system capable of spans of up to 30 m, using composite structures (steel-concrete) or lightweight solutions (orthotropic steel deck), that are fully prefabricated and can be installed quickly.
- Design modular and resilient foundation systems. Develop prefabricated abutments adaptable to various geotechnical conditions, along with a simplified method for selecting them based on site characteristics.
- Develop a hydraulic methodology adapted to future climate conditions. Establish an approach for properly sizing bridge spans based on current and projected hydrological conditions, taking into account the effects of climate change.
Overall Role of the Project
This project serves as a catalyst for innovation in the modernization of Quebec’s bridge network by proposing an integrated approach that combines structural, geotechnical, and hydraulic engineering.
It will contribute to:
- Accelerate the reconstruction of critical infrastructure using prefabricated solutions that can be installed in a matter of days rather than weeks or months;
- Enhance the climate resilience of bridges by incorporating flood risks and changes in water regimes into their design;
- Mitigate the socioeconomic impacts of closures by maintaining access to remote areas;
- Optimize the durability and performance of structures by replacing vulnerable systems with robust, low-maintenance solutions;
- To equip decision-makers and engineers with design and sizing methods tailored to the Quebec context.
In short, the project aims to transform small-span bridges into reliable, sustainable, and rapidly deployable infrastructure, directly contributing to the safety and continuity of services for communities.
Don’t just coexist with climate change.
