the bane of my existence….

The LaSalle Causeway lift bridge

The other day whilst navigating the power outage induced traffic jam across the LaSalle causeway, I found myself noting the similarity between the lift bridge and another with which I am familiar, the ‘blue bridge’ in Victoria.  Once at home and with power restored, a little research revealed the following infobits:

Did you know that the LaSalle causeway lift bridge shares a common feature with San Fransisco’s Golden Gate bridge?   Both share the engineering abilities of Mr. Joseph Strauss who was not only the designer of our bridge, but was also the chief engineer of the Golden Gate and Lions Gate Bridge in Vancouver. 

cross posted at kingstonist

Did you know that our bridge is in fact a Strauss Trunnion Bascule Bridge(STBB) of which severalare still in use in Canada.  Of all the STB bridges extant in Canada, it resembles most closely the dual road / rail Johnson Street Bridge [aka the 'blue bridge'] in Victoria, British Columbia.  Both are of a fixed girder design with hollow concrete counterweights.

Did you know that the LaSalle Causeway Bridge is not the original bridge on the causeway as there have been a few over time.   

Did you know that according to City documents[2004] the LaSalle Causeway accomodates 900 vehicles per hour at evening rush hours with the forecasted demand expected to rise to 1640 vehicles/hour by 2026.

And finally – did you know that the subject of a third crossing becomes the near universal topic of discussion amongst residents of Kingston east the day after a weather / accident / power outage induced traffic jam?