Causeway and Bridge with Road and Rail

[ghYHZ]

The Canso Causeway links mainland Nova Scotia with Cape Breton Island. It opened in 1955 replacing car and railroad ferries. Its 4300 feet from shore to shore and over 200 feet deep at the centre.

In the photo below you can see where the side of a hill was quarried for the rock-fill dumped into the strait to provide a roadbed for Trans-Canada Highway 104 and a single RR track. On the Cape Breton side there is a swing-bridge over the Canso Canal.















Within the next few years the Trans-Canada will be twinned through here but how will it be accomplished? I've seen one proposal of an elevated viaduct carrying the westbound lanes above the present lanes which would become the eastbound but a swing-bridge to be double-decked, would remain as an impediment to the free-flow of traffic.

A completely new four-lane high-level structure spanning the strait would be almost cost prohibitive but there's a possibility of a combination of the two.....a widened roadbed to the midpoint then a bridge structure, high enough to clear the canal and landing high-up on the Cape Breton side.     

[mightyace]

^^^

The economic viability of the railroad line is in question.  If the line is abandoned, you could squeeze in two more lanes on the existing causeway.

Of course, the high-tension power line towers would have to me moved and probably redesigned.

[aridawn]

The rail line is in use, as it is a line to the the ferry terminal for Newfoundland, as well as heavy steel industry.  Plus there is the possibility of starting up Cape Breton coal mines looming. Via Rail Canada use to run a tour train from Halifax to Sydney, NS a while back.  Not sure if plans are in the works to start that up again or not as it was popular.

[ghYHZ]

The rail line is in use, as it is a line to the the ferry terminal for Newfoundland, as well as heavy steel industry.  Plus there is the possibility of starting up Cape Breton coal mines looming. Via Rail Canada use to run a tour train from Halifax to Sydney, NS a while back.  Not sure if plans are in the works to start that up again or not as it was popular.

The rail line sees daily service to Port Hawkesbury on the Cape Breton side of the Strait but beyond there to Sydney.....only a couple of times a week.

The steel industry in Sydney has been gone for 10 + years now and Xstrata Coal who are developing the possibility of reopening the mines have indicated they will not be shipping coal by rail.

Even the tracks that once ran to the ferry terminal in North Sydney have been removed and the ferries to Newfoundland now in use are Ro-Ro type vessels and not equipped to handle cargo arriving by rail.

And I don't ever see VIA passenger trains returning......about the only possibility would be Tour Trains meeting cruise ships in Sydney and providing a scenic excursion to the Bras d'Or Lakes.

So once you are beyond Port Hawkesbury, the rails remain only because they are heavily subsidized by the Province.    

[vtk]

I think I crossed this in 1996 on a family trip to visit relatives on Boularderie Island.  I was too young to drive, but I could certainly navigate.  I think that "rotary" on the east end was my first encounter with a roundabout.

[ghYHZ]

I think I crossed this in 1996 on a family trip to visit relatives on Boularderie Island.  I was too young to drive, but I could certainly navigate.  I think that "rotary" on the east end was my first encounter with a roundabout.

Yes you would have crossed the Canso Causeway and probably the Seal Island Bridge too (that's Boularderie Island on the opposite side):





Before the Seal Island Bridge opened about 50 years ago a ferry linked Big Harbour with Ross Ferry on Bouladriere Island. Today the highway just dead-ends at the old docks.

[vtk]

Before the Seal Island Bridge opened about 50 years ago a ferry linked Big Harbour with Ross Ferry on Bouladriere Island. Today the highway just dead-ends at the old docks.

And we went to see that.  Mom's a bit of a roadgeek too