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The Welland By-Pass was a massive construction project on the Welland Canal in Ontario , Canada .

A new channel 13.4 Km (8.4 Mi ) long was constructed, providing a shorter, more direct alignment between Port Robinson and Port Colborne and bypassing downtown Welland . The project helped improve ship navigation along the canal and alleviated problems the presence of a busy ship canal was causing in Welland.


BACKGROUND


Although the city of Welland has originally grown around the canal, by the 1960s the constant interruptions in the flow of the traffic through the city became bothersome. A single ship would hold up traffic for ten minutes as it travelled under a Vertical Lift Bridge . In periods of heavy ship traffic, a bridge would stay raised for the extra ships to pass, and the delay would often stretch to half an hour or beyond. Additionally, many railroads originally built on Welland's outskirts found themselves in the middle of growing town, and the frequent rail transports from Toronto to Buffalo were getting inconvienent as well.

The old route was also inconvienent to the ships. It was twisting, long, and narrow. The five vertical lift bridges and a railroad Swing Bridge , all in close distance to one another, made the maneuvering tricky and the journey stressful. Captains complained of bulky buildings on the canal's edge blocking the line of sight. One of them commented, "The main thing every Lakes captain used to dread was Bridge 15, a railway bridge in the town of Welland with an abutment in the middle. ... I think every captain on the Lakes must have it at one time or another." [http://www.welland.library.on.ca/digital/clipping/source/bypass/11088.jpg]


CONSTRUCTION


The By-Pass project was a massive undertaking. 16.2 Km&2 (4,000 Acre s) of land was expropriated for the construction. Approximately 50 million Cubic Metre s of material was excavated. The new channel is 100 M (350 Feet ), as compared to 58 m (192 feet) of the old channel, and the depth is 9 m (30 feet). Two tunnels, the Main Street Tunnel and the ''' Townline Tunnel ''', were constructued.

To complement this, an Aqueduct for the Welland River , carrying it under the new waterway, was built. A four-tube inverted-syphon culvert, 200 m (638 feet long, 28 m (92 feet) wide, and extending 9 m (30 feet) below the navigation channel was constructed from 30,000 cubic metres of concrete. A new, approximately 1.6 km (1 mi) long channel was also constructed to route the river into the aqueduct.

In compensation for the loss of canalbanks through the city of Welland, parts of which were being used as a docking area by local industries, the project incorporated a dock, separated from the main travel route.

A lot of rail lines in the area were constructed to fit around the old alignment, and had to be dramatically altered for the new alignment. An estimated 161 km (100 mi) of new track was laid at a cost of $ 50 million.

The construction was started with sinking of the first shovel on June 9, 1967, and continued for six years. In a symbolic event watched by many residents, Bridge #13 on Welland 's East Main Street came up for the last time, lighted by floodlights, on December 15th, 1972. (The bridge has actually quietly opened the next day to allow the passage of a St. Lawrence Seaway service vessel.)

The Main Street Tunnel was officially opened on May 20, 1972, with the Townline Tunnel following on July 13. Rail traffic through the Townline Tunnel was inaugurated on January 31, 1973, and the new route of the canal was opened for shipping on April 1 of that year. An official opening ceremony took place on July 14, 1973.

Overall, the project cost approximately $ 188 million. The new channel reduced the length of the canal by 1.3 Km (0.8 Mi ) and eliminated six bridges with the construction of two tunnels. It reduced the transit time through the Welland Canal by about half an hour as compared to the old alignment.


OUTCOMES


The Welland By-Pass certainly achieved its goal of simplifying the travel along the Welland Canal. The city of Welland also benefitted from no longer being dependent on often erratic ship schedules. (For instance, a scheduled city-wide bus service was only started after the relocation.)

A decision had to be made as to the use of the old alignment. Originally, one of the proposed ideas was for it to be filled in and an extension to Highway 406 be run in it. That never came to be, and instead the old canal was turned over to the city and renamed the Welland Recreational Waterway .

The effect on downtown Welland wasn't as planned. Many claimed that, despite the initial euphoria of being able to move freely within the city, the removal of ship traffic through downtown Welland also removed Welland's soul; that while the city was previously divided by the canal, it was now united, but in apathy. In the recent years, however, the city seems to be growing back, fuelled mainly by the new Civic Centre, including the city hall and the public library, being built downtown by the canal.


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