Highway bridge across the Welland Canal in Ontario, Canada
The Garden City Skyway is a major high-level bridge located in St. Catharines and Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, Canada, that allows the Queen Elizabeth Way (QEW) to cross the Welland Canal without the interruption of a lift bridge. Six lanes of traffic are carried across the bridge, which is 2.2 kilometres (1.4mi)[2] in length and 40 metres (130ft) at its tallest point.
It is the tallest and largest single structure along the entire QEW; the Burlington Bay James N. Allan Skyway, which is also part of the QEW, is actually two separate and smaller four-lane bridges. Among all the bridges spanning the present Welland Canal, the Skyway is numbered Bridge 4A (the Homer Lift Bridge is Bridge 4). When the Garden City Skyway is closed due to a traffic accident or weather conditions, traffic is diverted to cross the canal at the Homer Lift Bridge.
In 2025, another QEW bridge is planned to be built adjacent to the existing Skyway, twinning it.
History
The Garden City Skyway in September 1963, soon before opening. The old bridge lay to the left, raised for a passing ship. Traffic is queued on both sides, a frequent occurrence each summer until the skyway was built.
Construction began in January 1960, with the main span crossing the Welland Canal hoisted into place in July of that same year. The bridge was open to traffic on October 18, 1963. During construction, the bridge was referred to as the Homer Skyway, taking its name from the lift bridge that the new skyway was to replace. Upon dedication, the bridge was officially named the Garden City Skyway, using the nickname of St. Catharines, "Canada's Garden City." Tolls were charged on the bridge until 1973.
The construction work included an Ontario "tall-wall" concrete median barrier, new bridge parapets, and the installation of shaded high-pressure sodium lights using the existing truss poles.
In 2015, the high-pressure sodium lights on the bridge were replaced with bright white LED lights on the existing truss poles.
Diversion
When the Garden City Skyway is closed due to a traffic accident or weather conditions, traffic is diverted along frontage roads (Dieppe Road, Dunkirk Road, Glendale Avenue, Queenston Road, Taylor Road and York Road) to cross the canal at the Homer Lift Bridge, re-connecting to the QEW on the opposite side.
Proposed expansion
Since the early 2010s, the Ontario Ministry of Transportation (MTO) has been working on plans to build an additional bridge next to the Skyway, twinning it.[3] Reasons for twinning the bridge include high traffic demand, road safety (the existing bridge lacks shoulders on both sides) and structural concerns as a result of the age of the existing bridge.[3]
The second bridge would be around 2.2 kilometres (1.4mi) in length, and be constructed north of the existing Skyway for Toronto-bound traffic,
while the existing bridge would be used by vehicles heading toward Niagara.[4] Once open, the existing Skyway bridge would be refurbished and rehabilitated.[5]
As of May2022[update], construction is estimated to start in 2025 and take around 4 years to complete.[3] The preferred route was announced in 2013.[4] 25 properties were purchased by the Ministry of Transportation to facilitate the planned twinning.[6]
"QEW Garden City Skyway – Bridge Twinning Project". Infrastructure Ontario. Retrieved 2023-04-18. Upon completion of the bridge, traffic from the existing bridge will be temporarily switched onto the newly constructed bridge to allow for rehabilitation of the existing Garden City Skyway bridge (under a separate contract).
This article uses material from the Wikipedia article Garden_City_Skyway, and is written by contributors.
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