Canadian Railroads > More High Water

A couple of days ago, Michael Berry posted a photo taken in Old Montreal showing the exceptionally high water in the port this week. Well, if the water is high in the Port of Montreal, it's going to be high and raging where the Ottawa River meets the St Lawrence River in Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue.

Picture #1 shows the normal water level in the summer (25 July 2014, in this case). An eastbound CN oil train is passing over the bridge.

Picture #2 shows the same location today.

I didn't catch any trains from the same angle today, so here's Via #69 from the south (east) side of the bridge (Picture #3).

The entire breakwater north of the bridges is under water now.

Ray

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That looks to be a rise of somewhere between two and three feet--not much compared to what we get here
on the Fraser during the spring freshet. In the last 45 years or so the highest recorded water level at
the Mission Bridge--where CP crosses to head south to the US border at Sumas--was 7.1 meters while the
lowest level was .4 meters. That's a range of 6.7 meters or almost 22 ft. Those are extremes from the
lowest late summer/fall levels to exceptional spring runoff highs; in average years the high/low range is
more like 12-15 ft.

Even though the Mission bridge is over 45 miles from the mouth of the Fraser it still sees daily tidal
fluctuations of about one meter...

GPS coordinates for the bridge... 49.126364 -122.300857

Keith Robertson
Langley, BC

LKeithR Wrote:
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> That looks to be a rise of somewhere between two
> and three feet

Higher than that - see the comparison on the breakwater -

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I had heard 8 feet above normal.

KG

kgmontreal Wrote:
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> I had heard 8 feet above normal.
>
> KG

Must be something to do with the scale and perspective of the pictures. Looking at the images of the
bridge abutments the water doesn't seem that much higher but it really jumps out at you in that one
of the breakwater. Is the water high enough to cause any serious issues? Road closures? Threatening
any homes or buildings?

Keith Robertson
Langley, BC

LKeithR Wrote:
> of the breakwater. Is the water high enough to
> cause any serious issues? Road closures?
> Threatening
> any homes or buildings?

Here a video at Rigaud....just off the west Island and was once the end of CP's commuter service.

http://video.theloop.ca/watch/flooding-in-rigaud/5406439818001#.WPz4VYWcHIU