The Port of Montreal last week announced that Hydro Quebec would raise two power lines above the St. Lawrence River, a move that will allow larger ships to reach Montreal.
Following a request by the Montreal Port Authority, Hydro Quebec will tighten power cables next year at Trois-Rivi?res and Boucherville, providing a clearance of 170 feet under the wires for vessels sailing to Montreal.
The power lines were lower in height than the Laviolette Bridge in Trois-Rivi?res, the lowest insurmountable obstacle on the St. Lawrence River for vessels sailing to Montreal. The bridge has just over 170 feet of clearance under its structure.
Celebrity Solstice in Ft. Lauderdale. The Celebrity Solstice is being equipped with a new telescoping mast so that she can call at Vancouver in 2014 instead of Nanaimo
By comparison, the Lions? Gate Bridge in Vancouver has a clearance of 200 feet and as built Celebrity Cruises? Solstice class ships could not sail into that port. However, the Celebrity Solstice is being equipped with a new telescoping mast so that she can call at Vancouver in 2014 instead of Nanaimo, where she called this year.
Cutting back on mast height is not something new, however. Back in April 1952, Canadian Pacific?s 30,030-ton Empress of Scotland, which had previously been the Transpacific liner Empress of Japan, sailing out of Vancouver, had her masts cut back by 44 feet in order to reach Montreal.
This had to be done in order to extend her own service beyond Quebec to so that all three of Canadian Pacific?s North Atlantic liners turned at Montreal.
Canadian Pacific?s 30,030-ton Empress of Scotland sailing out of Vancouver had her masts cut back by 44 feet in order to reach Montreal
Even in Montreal, however, the air draft of the Jacques Cartier Bridge, at 162 feet, meant that P&O?s original 41,915-ton Oriana had to berth downstream from it when she made her one and only call to Montreal in 1980, and other ships might have to do the same, while Montreal?s cruise terminals are located above the bridge.
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