science · 19 November 1996 · 28 years ago
In 1996, the last component of the Confederation Bridge was placed, crossing the Northumberland Strait, Canada. The piers are 250 metres apart and offer a ship's clearance of 172 metres in width. The 12.9 km Confederation Bridge joins Borden-Carleton, Prince Edward Island and Cape Jourimain, New-Brunswick and is the longest bridge over ice covered waters in the world. The bridge construction began in Oct 1993, and was opened on 31 May 1997. It carries two lanes of traffic 24 hours a day, seven days a week and takes approximately 10 minutes to cross at normal travelling speeds. The bridge was built curved so that drivers could see the traffic in front of them, a design chosen to reduce accidents.
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