Welland By-Pass

A single ship would hold up traffic for at least ten minutes as it travelled under a vertical lift bridge.

The old route, established in 1932 with the building of the fourth Welland Canal, was also inconvenient to the ships since it was twisting and narrow.

"[1] The by-pass project was a massive undertaking: 16.2 km² (4,000 acres) of land was expropriated for the construction.

The creation of the syphon culvert lowered ground water levels for miles around, the project making many dug wells run dry.

The St. Lawrence Seaway Authority denied responsibility, but paid many residents to have a drilled well installed to supply their water.

A Google map is available which shows the changes to the rail network as a result of the canal relocation, as well as changes made since.

(During construction, a giant "Earth mover" working on the canal, accidentally struck and ruptured a buried natural gas line, which erupted into a torch-like flame approx 90–100 meters high; there were no injuries.)

In a symbolic event watched by many residents, on a snowy night, Bridge #13 on Welland's East Main Street came up for the last time, lighted by floodlights, on December 15, 1972, the new bypass would be open to shipping for the next season.

It carried a cargo of 1,063,868 bushels of barley in transit from Duluth, Minnesota to Port Cartier, Quebec.

The new channel reduced the length of the canal by 1.3 km (0.81 mi) and replaced six bridge crossings with the two new tunnels.