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Technical Tours
Beauharnois and Carillon Hydroelectric Facilities
Beauharnois Hydroelectric Facility
Carillon Hydroelectric Facility
Date: Thursday, September 19, 2024
Time: 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Duration: 9 hours
Price: $150 CAD per participant
Capacity: This tour is limited to 50 participants
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This technical tour will take place at two historic hydroelectric facilities, Beauharnois and Carillon.
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Beauharnois, built in the 1930s, is one of the world's largest hydroelectric power stations, with 36 turbine-generator units and an installed capacity of over 1,900 megawatts. Featuring art deco architecture, it is a designated Canadian historic site. Its 25 km long, 1 km large inlet canal required the excavation of 200 million cubic meters of material, almost 20% more than for the Panama Canal. The dikes built on either side of the Beauharnois canal using excavated material are also unique structures. The technical tour will enable you to appreciate the full extent of the hydroelectric original project.
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Carillon was the first hydroelectric power station in the province to be built under the supervision of French-Canadian engineers in the early days of the Quiet Revolution. The hydroelectric development, located on the Ottawa River, straddles the border between Quebec and Ontario. Entirely located in Quebec, the run-of-river power station is equipped with 14 turbine-generator units representing an installed capacity of over 750 MW. The spillway, located in Ontario, has a discharge capacity of over 11,000 m³/s over 12 passes. Since its construction, a significant volume of material has been eroded from the downstream reach. The visit will focus on recent analysis and monitoring of bank erosion in the downstream reach.
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Tour participants are asked to bring their own steel-toed safety boots. The following Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) will be provided: Helmets and safety glasses.
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*Return time may vary depending on weather and road conditions.
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Photo above provided courtesy of Hydro Quebec.
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Ville-Marie tunnel and Île-aux-Tourtes Bridge
Date: Thursday, September 19, 2024
Time: 8:00 am – 4:00 pm*
Duration: 8 hours
Price: $150 CAD per participant
Capacity: This tour is limited to 10 participants
Join us for a tour of key road infrastructure on the Island of Montreal.
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The Viger and Ville-Marie tunnels are located less than a kilometre from the conference hotel and allow motorists to easily drive through downtown Montreal. You will visit the very heart of these tunnels, which are undergoing major renovations.
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At the western end of the island, the Île-aux-Tourtes Bridge spans Lac des Deux-Montagnes and links Senneville (Montreal) to the City of Vaudreuil-Dorion. On this tour, you'll have the opportunity to learn about the reconstruction work to replace the existing bridge.
*Return time may vary depending on weather and road conditions.
Tour participants are required to bring their own steel-toed boots. Hard hats, vests, and safety glasses will be provided.
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Photo on the left provided courtesy of Ministère des Transports et de la Mobilité durable.
Photo on the right provided courtesy of BANQ.
Réseau express métropolitain (REM), falaise Saint-Jacques et échangeur Turcot
Date: Thursday, September 19, 2024
Time: 9:00 am – 4:00 pm*
Duration: 7 hours
Price: $70 CAD per participant
Capacity: This tour is limited to 30 participants
This technical tour will take place in two parts. Participants will visit the Réseau express métropolitain (REM) in the morning, before moving on to the Saint-Jacques cliff and Turcot Interchange site in the afternoon.
The REM is a new mass transit system inaugurated in 2023. First, the geotechnical and hydrogeological challenges and issues of the first phase of the REM linking Montreal's South Shore to Central Station will be presented. You will then be taken on a train tour of the first stations to open.
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The Turcot interchange is one of Quebec's most important infrastructures. It combines a highway junction and a railroad line, along the Saint-Jacques cliff, which has a vertical drop of approximately 30 metres. Beyond the structural elements clearly visible on the site, the technical challenges included managing run-off water, controlling surface erosion and erecting a reinforced wall. The use of a wide variety of geosynthetics enabled the work to be carried out efficiently and with minimal disruption to users of the interchange, which handles more than 300,000 vehicles daily. In all, some 200,000 m² of geotextiles, drainage geocomposites, geogrids and other geosynthetics were used.
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At the heart of the interchange's reconstruction was the relocation of over 22 km of track, an engineering feat that enabled these crucial structures to be relocated without interrupting CN's operations, on a new embankment built on deep deposits of compressible organic soil at the foot of the Saint-Jacques cliff.
*Return time is approximate.
Tour participants will have to walk about 30 to 45 minutes outside, with a difference in elevation of about 20 metres. Tour participants are therefore advised to bring outdoor footwear and clothing suitable for walking and appropriate for the weather.