Montreal-Pont Victoria

[empirestate]

Just got back from a brief overnight visit to Montreal and got to see a couple of the road-related sights that had most interested me: one was the 720 autoroute (with its tunnel) and the other was the Pont Victoria. The latter is a simply fascinating piece of infrastructure; I especially like how the SB lanes rise up over the railroad spur mid-span! I also know that the bridge is reversible for peak-direction travel, but does anyone have more info on how specifically this works regarding the various approach ramps? The ramps are pretty nifty in their own right, but the direction change makes them a little mind-boggling on the map...are they all reversible as well, or do some of them only ever function in a single direction? And what's with the redundant pairs on the south end? I assume it has to do with the two movable spans over the canal lock.

[Alps]

You're basically correct about all of it. The ramps are configured such that either direction of traffic can get onto either of the approach spans (or back off) - keep in mind Victoria runs one-way during rush hour, too. And yes, the idea is that at least one span of traffic can keep going when the other one's open (open meaning closed... you know what I mean) - although that's really meant for railroad traffic and not cars.

[ghYHZ]

Pont Victoria is foremost a railway bridge carrying CN's mainlines to Halifax and New England and also used by VIA Rail and Amtrak.
 
Originally constructed as a tubular bridge in 1859, it was rebuilt with trusses in 1898.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victoria_Bridge_(Montreal)

Outriggers on the westside carried a two-way carriageway (now one-way reversible) and on the eastside, tracks for the Montreal & Southern Counties Suburban Electric Railway. The eastside was eventually converted into another carriageway when the Suburban Electric tracks were removed. In the late 1950's the south end had to be significantly altered to accommodate a lift-span for the St. Lawrence Seaway and a new "Diversion Bridge"  was constructed on the west side.

The St. Lambert Lock is located between the original bridge and the diversion bridge. Should a ship be in entering the lock from the east, the diversion bridge is used. Once the ship is ready to proceed west from the lock, the lift span on the diversion bridge is raised while the lift span on the original alignment is lowered.

http://g.co/maps/vkbxv

http://g.co/maps/yvtdt

This way, rail and highway traffic continues to flow without disruption.

[empirestate]

Is the diversion bridge route essentially the default configuration? It's set up that way in the Street View pictures, and was the same when I drove over. It seems that's the more circuitous route; odd that it should be chosen as the default.

Also, the ramp I took (the SB diversion ramp) is striped for two-way traffic with a double solid yellow, but obviously it feeds a one-way roadway along the bridge proper. Do they use this to queue-up NB traffic, for example, while they prepare to switch to one-way NB operation?

[ghYHZ]

Pont Victoria is essentially a railway bridge and the diversion is only used when a ship is being locked through. I've been across more often on a train than in a car and would say most of those crossing have been on the original span.....not the diversion.

[empirestate]

Makes sense...I should have specified for vehicular traffic that the diversion seems to be the default route, but it could just be that both Street View and I were lucky to find it that way! (I didn't notice whether there was a ship present, which probably means there wasn't one.)

[Duke87]

I'm not certain but I'm betting that what position it's left in depends on which direction the last boat that went through was going - i.e., there is no "default", they just leave it as it was last used.

[ghYHZ]

Here's a link to a photo on the St. Lambert end showing the original span on the right and the diversion: (and page through the photos......there's other Montreal bridge photos here too)

http://lesf.multiply.com/photos/album/55?&show_interstitial=1&u=%2Fphotos%2Falbum#photo=4

Pont Victoria was a toll bridge once and the tolls were collected by the Canadian National Railways. Until a few years ago, you could still see the Toll Booths on the the Montreal side.  

[Dougtone]

Additional Pont Victoria (Bridge) photos can be found on my Flickr photostream in my QC 112 set.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dougtone/sets/72157622735377463/

[ghYHZ]

Additional Pont Victoria (Bridge) photos can be found on my Flickr photostream in my QC 112 set.

Thanks for posting those. As I said, most of my crossings of the Victoria have been on the train so I've just got to get out and explore it (and the Jacques Cartier) on the next trip to Montreal. Driving from the Maritimes.....I usually use the Lafontaine Tunnel or the Champlain.