Opened in 1962, the bridge crossed the Saint Lawrence River, connecting the Island of Montreal to its South Shore suburbs.

[8] On August 17, 1955, Federal Transport Minister George Marler announced the planned construction of a new bridge connecting Montreal to the South Shore via Nun's Island.

The city's existing bridges (Victoria, Cartier, and Mercier) had become inadequate to support the amount of traffic that carried residents from the growing South Shore suburbs into Montreal.

[11] On November 29, 2013, a temporary external beam of 75 tons, named "super-beam" by the media, was urgently installed to reinforce the structure.

The problems associated with the design and maintenance of the Champlain Bridge thus exceeded the useful life of several structural components.

In March 2011, the Government of Canada announced $158 million were to be spent on a major repair and maintenance program as concerns mounted that it was at risk of collapse.

Montreal's La Presse newspaper cited two leaked engineering reports prepared for a federal bridge agency that suggested sections of the structure were in a severe state of deterioration.

[12] Starting in 2009, JCCBI — the Federal agency that managed the structure — began conducting a major repair program to extend the useful life of the Champlain Bridge.

In 2010, JCCBI retained international engineering firm Delcan to carry out an expert study of the bridge's structural health.

In the Executive Summary, the bridge was said to be "functionally deficient" for both current and long-term traffic demands, and showing "significant deterioration".

Delcan concluded that the bridge had "many deficiencies" and, even in light of the methodical inspection and rehabilitation of the structure undertaken by its owners, that continued operation "entails some risks that cannot altogether be quantified".

In September 2007, faced with rising costs for the maintenance of the Champlain Bridge, then Canadian Minister of Transport Lawrence Cannon confirmed that his department was seriously considering the construction of a replacement structure.

In October 2011, then Minister of Transport Denis Lebel officially announced that construction on the new bridge would begin within 10 years.

In April 2015, the federal government selected the JV consortium: Signature on the St. Lawrence Group to build the new bridge.