REMODELING OF THE DROUIN BRIDGE
Project statement
The Drouin Bridge spans over the Saint-Charles River and is a key urban roadway connecting two central and dense Québec City neighborhoods. The redevelopment changed the motorway makeup of the facility into a user-friendly urban space and re-established worthy pedestrian privileges. The main objective of the project was to humanize the bridge and to this end the following amenities were designed and implemented:
• Space gain over the roadway to the benefit of sidewalks, and construction of a curb;
• A change of lighting to pedestrian scale, provided by decorative streetlights located on both sidewalks and resting on precast black concrete bases that may also be used as benches; theses footings create a buffered and safe pedestrian zone towards the roadway;
• The addition of belvedere offers prime stopping points overlooking the river with the cityscape as a backdrop;
• Creation of an identity icon or decorative element: the central curb, with its wave-shaped form, recalls the shifting of water. This representation of movement is given by the the shape of the precast concrete curb that imposes its visual flutter to grasses and annual flowers.
Landscape architect’s role
Landscape architecture provided strategy to this project, and landscape architects were involved in all phases of the renovation process. The project authority, acting on behalf of the City of Québec, was a landscape architect. The design and execution plans were performed and carried out by an architectural landscape firm assigned to attend the worksite throughout construction operations.
In spite of the needs entailed by urban traffic and bridge design requirements, landscape architects succeeded in maintaining the purpose at hand, i.e., a user-friendly urban space. They worked in close collaboration with engineers to develop novel solutions addressing safety, durability and project objectives while complying to a host of standards and normative constraints.
In a departure from traditional projects, the development parameters established at the outset by the landscape architects have steered project throughout.
Local and regional significance
A historical thoroughfare, the Drouin bridge stretches over the wading crossing of the Saint-Charles River where three bridges have successively arched since 1759, the latest being the Drouin Bridge built in 1973. The bridge connects two important Québec City neighborhoods, Limoilou and Saint-Roch, and it is identified by both neighborhoods as their own point of entry. The citizens of Limoilou had identified the redevelopment of the Drouin Bridge among their priorities in the 1996 Vieux-Limoilou master plan.
Further, a linear park runs along the Saint-Charles River on both sides of the bridge and sustains bikers and skaters which add to the flow of pedestrians and strollers alongside automobile traffic. The Drouin Bridge is first and foremost the entry point to two central, urban neighborhoods and a prime access to either side of the existing river-bank linear park.
Statement of special factors
The input of landscape architects also addressed a number of constraints usually worked out by engineers in a traditional manner; landscape architects provided novel solutions applicable to the structure at hand, a bridge.
For example, at the request of the landscape architects the typical detail of the bridge’s guard rail has been customized to improve its appearance without challenging the requirements set forth in the standards applicable to bridges. Although the guard rails installed along the belvederes is not in compliance with bridge standards, it was designed to comply with the National Building Code of Canada requirements in order to lighten the structure. To this end, an alternate solution was devised which introduced a bench facing each belvedere in order to set an obstacle should a vehicle ram off the roadway. The concrete base of the benches are in line with the kerb and they are geometrically continuous with the concrete pilasters of the bridges’s guard rail.
The remodeling project included an innovative central curb in pre-cast concrete and its plantation. The curb displays uninterrupted vertical inclination and horizontal dip and its construction was challenging. The built-in plantation was designed to minimum weight requirements and limited carrying capacity with a special potting mixture and a custom irrigation and drainage system.
Project brief
The Drouin bridge was redeveloped as the point of entry of two Québec City neighborhoods with a thrust to humanize this former wading crossing thoroughfare and accommodate pedestrians. With it’s wave-shaped form, the curb stands for the identity icon recalling the shifting of water.
