Foundation design aspects of the Confederation Bridge

Abstract

The Confederation Bridge is a 12.9 km long multi-span bridge spanning the Northumberland Strait to connect the provinces of Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick on the east coast of Canada. It is the longest continuous marine span bridge over ice-covered water in the world. The bridge is a design, build, operate, and transfer facility with the Government of Canada being the ultimate owner. Construction started in October 1993, and the bridge officially opened, on schedule, to traffic on June 1, 1997. The combination of deep water, high lateral and eccentric loads, complex geology and variable strength bedrock, and short construction window due to ice and bad weather introduced many foundation engineering challenges. This paper summarizes and discusses the geotechnical aspects of foundation design and construction monitoring services for the bridge. The geological setting and geotechnical conditions, the loading conditions and design criteria, specialized geotechnical analyses, foundation design, and construction quality assurance - quality control issues are described and discussed.Key words: Confederation Bridge, Northumberland Strait, foundation design, quality assurance, ring footing, drilled shafts.