Darwin Bridge on Nuns’ Island will be made out of recycled glass bottles. The Bridge may look like any other, but it is a world-first to use recycled glass as construction materials. The environmentally friendly project is going to use about 70,000 glass bottles for building its two bridges on Nuns’ Island.
Étienne Cantin Bellemare, the lead designer and engineer behind this project, said, “It’s an opportunity for this glass to, let’s say, have a second life,” “We are going to replace 10 percent of the cement with glass powder.”
The Darwin Bridge is a set of overpasses for pedestrians and cyclists to cross under Île-des-Sœurs Boulevard’s four lanes safely.
To construct these two bridges, 70,000 wine bottles will be mixed in with around 88,000 pounds of cement.
Overall the bridges will contain about 10% of finely ground recycled glass. This innovation is not only going to be good for the environment but also the strength of bridges.
Bellemare explained that the use of glass powder will help in cutting down the energy consumed to produce the required concrete. This innovation will cut CO2 emissions by 40 tonnes. He assured that drivers won’t notice any difference.
Bellemare said, “Using glass powder is going to increase the durability of the concrete — durability [against] freezing and thawing and resistance to ice and salt. The concrete is going to be a little more strong also,”
