Décarie Expressway rebuilding - Demolition and drilling of the ceiling of the Notre Dame-de-Grâce tunnel (Montreal, Quebec)

Work to be performed: stripping and drilling of concrete ceiling

Period: April to November 2003

Challenges and special requirements:

• Every morning, all the equipment had to be removed from the expressway and the tunnel had to be reopened to traffic. As a result of this requirement:

  • Actual work time was shortened, thus requiring greater speed to meet deadlines
    
    
  • All the demolition and drilling equipment had to be uninstalled and reinstalled daily to allow for daytime use of the tunnel by traffic.
  
  
• Demolition work was performed on the tunnel ceiling
  
  
• The concrete had to be stripped and recovered using the same equipment
  
  
• To avoid negatively affecting air quality in the tunnel, the dust created by drilling had to be recovered
  
  
• The vibration transmitted to the existing structure had to be kept to a minimum
  
  
• Stripping depth, which varied depending on the particular area, had to be very precise. To limit resurfacing costs, only the affected concrete was to be removed.

Equipment used:

• Concrete-recovering machining tool
• Stand-alone pneumatic drill