A30 EXPRESS HIGHWAY (PUBLIC PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP)

Construction of the A30 Express highway is the biggest public-private highway infrastructure project ever undertaken in Canada. Construction was carried out in a Public-Private Partnership worth $1.5 billion.  Its 54km length (34 miles) connects the western and southern suburbs of Montreal and in doing so required crossing not only the St. Lawrence Seaway but the mighty St. Laurence River itself.

"In total, well over 25,000 tons of galvanized steel was used in the project over a four-year construction span."

This toll highway creates the first southern ring, connecting several major highways in the Greater Montreal area (10, 15, 20, 40 and 540) into one seamless network. 40,000 vehicles per hour will use this route, thereby avoiding countless hours of lost time on the perpetually congested bridges and inner highways of the city. Car and truck traffic travelling between the eastern seaboards of both Canada and the USA, southern Quebec, Ontario and Western Canada can now entirely avoid the center of Montreal.  

To complete the highway the following structures were needed in addition to the roadbed itself:
1 tunnel
2 major bridges
5 bridges over secondary rivers
23 overpasses
2 major highway interchanges
8 road interchanges
1 bicycle path overpass

These structures were a mixture of steel and traditional and precast concrete construction. In total, well over 25,000 tons of galvanized steel was used in the project over a four-year construction span. This is the most intensive highway project ever built with galvanizing used for everything from steel structures, expansion joints, guard rails, bridge rails, lighting poles, signage structures, sound barriers and thousands of tons of reinforcing bar (rebar).

This widespread use of galvanizing will reap exceptional rewards for both the ownership consortium and the people of Quebec. These include a lower initial cost, much lower maintenance costs and dramatically extended service life. With so much of North American highway infrastructure in urgent need of replacement, this high profile project is a breakthrough for such an intensive and widespread use of galvanizing.

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