Historical data from the Quebec Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility reveals that “the Pierre-Laporte Bridge has never closed due to a structural problem.”
In a response to Soleil obtained on Friday, the ministry nevertheless lists that “the bridge has been the subject of around twenty complete closures to traffic since its opening, due to de-icing operations or desperate people perched on the structure.”
On June 13, the Prime Minister of Quebec, François Legault, and his Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Transport, Geneviève Guilbault, announced that they were moving forward with a project for a third bridge between the two banks of the capital.
They are using the argument of “economic security” and fear a “catastrophe” in the event of an emergency closure of the Pierre-Laporte Bridge. The easternmost point for freight trucks to cross the St. Lawrence would then be in Trois-Rivières.
Bomb and despair
Inaugurated in September 1970, the bridge was originally called Pont Frontenac, in honor of the former governor of New France, Louis de Buade, Count of Frontenac. However, it was quickly renamed after Minister Pierre Laporte, assassinated by the Quebec Liberation Front in October 1970, during the events known as the October Crisis.
A summary table provided by the ministry lists eight complete closures of the Pierre-Laporte bridge from September 1980 to today.
There are, among other things, six complete closures of 30 minutes each at night, in May of this year, for “dimensional surveys of the structure”. Similar maneuvers were carried out in October 2014 over four one-hour periods.
Five of these total bridge closures were caused by desperate people climbing onto the bridge structure in an attempt to jump into the river.
The longest of these five interventions occurred on August 12, 2011. The bridge was closed to traffic in both directions for four hours and 47 minutes.
Anti-suicide deterrent barriers have since been installed on the support cables and at the ends of the Pierre-Laporte bridge.
On September 23, 1980, a bomb threat forced a ban on driving on the bridge in both directions for two and a half hours.
A receptionist at Sainte-Foy town hall, Lisette Racine, had received a phone call from an anonymous caller “with an English accent,” reported The sun the next day. “There is a bomb on the Laporte Bridge,” the person said.
But “all the police found was a sort of ‘Molotov cocktail’ which they are very reluctant to link to this case,” wrote journalist Michel Truchon.
No closure planned
“It happens that one or two lanes out of three are closed in one direction or the other if there are accidents or during the night to carry out work or inspections of the structure,” specifies the spokesperson for the Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility, Émilie Lord.
Friday, The sun unveiled a working document from the ministry which shows a busy schedule of obstructions and partial or complete closures to be expected on the two bridges, Quebec and Pierre-Laporte, during the years 2025 and 2026.
Minister Guilbault has repeatedly said that the current state of the bridge is safe and that regular inspections are carried out.
“Although it is impossible for us to predict what may happen, no complete closure of the Pierre-Laporte bridge is anticipated,” attests Ms. Lord.
