Champlain Dismantling
Written by Jeremy Zafran on 10 January 2022
Pictures have circulated by the media and on social media highlighting the removal of the central span portion of the Old Champlain Bridge. Images of the distinct green middle-superstructure being lowered onto a barge and taken away were on full display over the weekend.
Eugene Diabo is a retired Ironworker. He worked from the ground up on the original Champlain Bridge:
“I was one of the 1st ones there and one of the last ones to leave the bridge. When we just started the job, I went there and we started by the first two weeks pumping the water out from around the dykes they had made when they built the piers, that was in 1959.”
Diabo stayed on the project until the summer of 1961 and was part of the celebrations that was held on the old span when it was decommissioned 3 years ago coinciding with the new bridge opening.
Elected Official Lindsay Leborgne is a former Ironworker and he says there were certainly a few from Kahnawake who worked on the original bridge:
“There’s at least 1 person that I’m aware of that worked, but I’m sure there were more. My grandfather worked for Dominion Bridge back in those days, they probably just built some of the iron over there, you know made some of the members for that bridge over there.”
Dismantling continues for another year 400$ million
