Confederation Bridge
The Confederation Bridge is a box girder bridge carrying the Trans-Canada Highway across the Abegweit Passage of the Northumberland Strait, linking the province of Prince Edward Island with the mainland province of New Brunswick. Opened on May 31, 1997, the bridge is Canada's longest bridge and the world's longest bridge over ice-covered water.
The bridge was designed by French engineer Jean M. Muller who is specialist of multiple span match-casting bridges. Construction took place from 1 November 1993 until May 1997 and cost C$1.3 billion. Before its official naming, Prince Edward Islanders often referred to the bridge as the "Fixed Link". It officially opened to traffic on May 31, 1997.
Structure
The bridge is a two-lane toll bridge that carries the Trans-Canada Highway between Borden-Carleton, Prince Edward Island and Cape Jourimain, New Brunswick.It is a multi-span balanced cantilever bridge with a post-tensioned concrete box girder structure. Most of the curved bridge is above water; there is a navigation span for ship traffic. The bridge rests on 62 piers, of which the 44 main piers are apart. The bridge is wide.
The speed limit on the bridge is but can vary with wind and weather conditions. When travelling at the speed limit, it takes about 12 minutes to cross the bridge.
Tolls
Tolls apply only when leaving Prince Edward Island. The toll rates have been $20 per vehicle, with no charge for additional axles. Motorcycles are also charged $20.While pedestrians and cyclists are not permitted to cross the bridge, a shuttle service is available. Before 2006, the shuttle was free and since January 1, 2022, the service has charged $4.75 per pedestrian or $9.50 per cyclist when leaving Prince Edward Island. Baggage is charged at a rate of $4.25 per bag after the first bag.
When the bridge opened, it charged $35 per two-axle automobile, with the rate increasing by 75% of yearly inflation. By January 1 2022, these tolls had reached $50.25. Following the effects the COVID-19 pandemic and Hurricane Fiona, the Government of Canada subsidized toll revenues and froze any potential increases each year, keeping the 2022 rate of $50.25 plus $8.50 per additional axle.
As part of a promise made during Mark Carney's campaign in the 2025 federal election, effective August 1, 2025, the toll was further subsidized by the Federal Government and reduced from $50.25 to $20. Also effective August 1, 2025, the other major Northumberland Strait crossing, the Wood Islands Ferry from Wood Islands, Prince Edward Island to Caribou, Nova Scotia, halved its charges from the previous rate of $86 to per car, including passengers, when leaving Prince Edward Island. Other fares halved include the rates for commercial vehicles, pedestrians, motorcycles, and bicycles, and to fuel surcharges.
Travellers, whether entering the island by bridge and leaving by ferry or, vice versa, pay for leaving the Island only.
History
Various proposals for a fixed link across the Northumberland Strait can be traced as far back as the 1870s when the provinces' railway systems were developed. Subsequent proposals arose during federal elections in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The ebb and flow of public support for a fixed link was indirectly tied to the varying levels of federal investment in ferry and steamship connections to the province over the years, finally culminating in a proposal in the mid-1980s which resulted in the construction of the current bridge.Water transportation links
As a part of Prince Edward Island's admission into the Dominion of Canada in 1873, the Canadian government was obligated to provide:Following Confederation, early steamship services across Northumberland Strait connected the Island ports of Charlottetown and Georgetown with railway facilities at Pictou, Nova Scotia. Similar services operated from Summerside connected with railway facilities at Shediac, New Brunswick.
The most direct route across the Northumberland Strait, however, was at the wide Abegweit Passage. Infrequent winter service provided by underpowered steamships incapable of breaking sea ice ensured the survival of a passenger and mail service across Abegweit Passage using iceboats until a permanent ferry service was established in the 1910s.
The unsatisfactory winter steamship service and reliance upon primitive iceboats provoked complaints from the Island government until the federal government decided to implement a railcar ferry service across Abegweit Passage between new ports at Port Borden and Cape Tormentine.
In 1912, the federal government promised to open a car ferry between the "Capes". The privately owned New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island Railway from Sackville, New Brunswick to Cape Tormentine was purchased by the federal government and an order was made with a shipyard in England for an icebreaking railcar ferry, to be called the Prince Edward Island. Ports were developed at Carleton Point, several kilometres west of Cape Traverse, and the existing harbour at Cape Tormentine; the new port at Carleton Point would be named Borden in honour of Prime Minister Sir Robert Borden.
The new ferry entered service in 1915 and operated on the former steamship routes until port facilities were opened in October 1917. Automobile service was added in 1938 and other vessels followed as the ferry service expanded in the post-war years.
This ferry service was initially the responsibility of Canadian Government Railways and later Canadian National Railway, then a CNR subsidiary CN Marine. In 1986, CN Marine was renamed when all federal government ferry services in Atlantic Canada were transferred to the new Crown corporation Marine Atlantic.
;Ferry service years
- Prince Edward Island
- Scotia I
- Scotia II
- Charlottetown
- Abegweit, renamed Abby
- Confederation
- John Hamilton Gray
- Lucy Maud Montgomery
- Holiday Island
- Vacationland
- ''Abegweit''
Early proposals
Talk of a fixed link was revived in the 1950s and 1960s, coinciding with federal election campaigns. The topic was raised in 1957, only two years following the opening of the Canso Causeway, and at the same time as another mega-project, the St. Lawrence Seaway was being constructed. A rockfill causeway was proposed to cross Abegweit Passage, with a bridge/tunnel to accommodate shipping. This plan was rejected for navigational reasons but was raised again in 1962, and in 1965, the federal government, ignoring concerns of the shipping industry, called for tenders for a $148 million fixed link featuring a tunnel/causeway/bridge. Approach roads and railway lines were constructed at Borden and Jourimain Island but the project was formally abandoned in 1969 upon scientific recommendation in favour of improved ferry services.
Due to the extremely complex tidal regime in the Northumberland Strait consisting of diurnal and semi-diurnal cycles, any attempt to close Abegweit Passage would be next to impossible since the tidal cycles on each side of a causeway would be placed at opposites to each other. It is estimated by tidal experts at the Canadian Hydrographic Service, that tidal currents through a gap in such a causeway would be in excess of, powerful enough to counter most commercial ships and to sweep away boulders the size of houses.
1988 plebiscite
Consideration of a fixed link was renewed in the 1980s by an unsolicited proposal from a Nova Scotia businessman. The federal government favoured the construction of a fixed link chiefly because of the rising costs of providing ferry service and the increasing deficits being incurred by the railway system on PEI. The federal government proposed to provide a fixed subsidy for the construction and operation of a fixed link, in return for the province agreeing to the abandonment of the ferry service and the railway system.Following the election of the Progressive Conservative government of Brian Mulroney, with its agenda for regional development through so-called "mega-projects," Public Works Canada called for formal proposals in 1987 and received three offers. These proposals included a tunnel, a bridge, and a combined tunnel-causeway-bridge.
These developments sparked an extremely divisive debate on the Island, and Premier Joe Ghiz promised a plebiscite to gauge public support, which was held on January 18, 1988.
During the plebiscite debate, the anti-link group Friends of the Island cited potential ecological damage from the construction, as well as concerns about the impact on Prince Edward Island's lifestyle in general, and noted that the "mega-project" model has had limited success in other areas of the world, and rarely enriched the local population. The Friends of the Island believed that a fixed link was being pressured by a federal government not willing to shoulder the cost of constitutional obligations for funding an efficient ferry service, and that a link would be built largely for the benefit of mainland tourists and businesses waiting to exploit the Island.
The pro-link group Islanders for a Better Tomorrow noted transportation reliability would result in improvements for exporters and the tourism industry.
The result was 59.4% in favour of the fixed link.
Bridge development
The debate did not end with the 1988 plebiscite and the federal government faced numerous legal challenges and a lengthy environmental impact assessment for the project. The developer of the single bridge proposal, Strait Crossing Development Inc., was selected and an announcement that the Northumberland Strait Crossing Project would be built was finally made on December 2, 1992; the developer being required to privately finance all construction through bond markets.Shareholders of Strait Crossing Development Inc. include: