Jacques Cartier Bridge bike path will be closed this winter again

The Jacques Cartier Bridge bike path will not be open this winter, the federal bridge authority has announced.

The 2.7-kilometre path closes every year at the first sign of wintry weather, to the dismay of many cyclists who use it to travel between Montreal and the South Shore.

Last year, Jacques Cartier and Champlain Bridges Incorporated (JCCBI) spent $1.67 million testing out ways to clearsnow off the path, with the aim of keeping it open insubsequent winters.

The bridge authorityoffered a shuttle bus service between Montreal and Longueuil for cyclists, while it looked into organic and chemical de-icing techniques, as well as conventional and unconventional methods of removing snow.

But the pilot project did not come up with a conclusive method to get rid of the snow and thuskeep the path open, said JCCBI senior director of Projects and Construction Catherine Tremblay, in a news release.

And so,despite the efforts, the path will still be closed this winter.

The issues, the JCCBI says, are threefold:

• The "complex weather conditions" of the St. Lawrence River meanthe path's surface is conducive to the formation of black ice.
• The path has an"atypical geometry" it is narrow, long and has steep slopes and tight turns. Itis also made of an elevated concrete slab, approximately 15 centimetresthick, which makes it "highly reactive to the harsh and changeable conditions, compared to a path located on a roadbed, which insulates the road surface."
• Ice tends to fall from the superstructure above the bike path, and the bridge authority hasn't figured out how to protect users from that danger.

More studies will be done in the coming months to try and figure out how to deal with those challenges, said the JCCBI.