Canso Canal

Canso Canal
Canso Canal
	Canso Canal lock and lighthouse
	Canso Canal in Nova Scotia
Country	Canada
Coordinates	45°38′53″N61°24′50″W / 45.64806°N 61.41389°W
Specifications
Length	0.56 km (0.35 miles)
Maximum boat length	225.6 m (740 ft 2 in)
Maximum boat beam	23.8 m (78 ft 1 in)
Minimum boat draft	9.8 m (32 ft 2 in)
Locks	1; (Seawaymax Lock)
Status	Open
Navigation authority	Canadian Coast Guard Maritimes Region
History
Principal engineer	O.J. McCulloch Engineers Ltd. of Montreal
Construction began	1953
Date completed	September 2, 1955
Geography
Start point	St. George's Bay in the Northumberland Strait, a sub-basin of the Gulf of St. Lawrence to the north.
End point	Chedabucto Bay of the Atlantic Ocean to the south

Last updated November 02, 2022

The Canso Canal is a short canal located in Nova Scotia, Canada.

Canal location

The Canso Canal is in the Strait of Canso, on the eastern side of the Canso Causeway, a rock-fill causeway which opened in 1955 to carry a 2-lane highway and a single rail track from Cape Breton Island to mainland Nova Scotia. The canal was built through Balache Point in Inverness County.

The causeway completely blocks the Strait of Canso, which links the waters of St. George's Bay in the Northumberland Strait, a sub-basin of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, with Chedabucto Bay on the Atlantic Ocean.

Canal dimensions

The canal, constructed between 1953 and 1955, is 24 metres (79 feet) wide and 570 m (1,870 ft) long, with a minimum depth of 9.8 m (32 ft 2 in). It has a single Seawaymax lock to account for tidal differences; any vessel capable of transiting the St. Lawrence Seaway will fit through the Canso Canal.

The Canso Canal Bridge is a 94-metre-long (308 ft) swing bridge which carries the Trans-Canada Highway and a railway line across the canal immediately south of the southern end of the lock.

Canal operation

Vessels entering St. George's Bay to the west of the canal, or Chedabucto Bay to the east, must comply with a Vessel Traffic System operated by the Canadian Coast Guard.^[1]

An average of 2,069 ships, with an average gross tonnage of 1.88 million tons pass through the Canso Canal each year. About 85 per cent of vessel traffic is owned or operated by shipping companies, fishermen and government, the remainder being pleasure craft users.^[2]

Related Research Articles

Cape Breton Island is an island on the Atlantic coast of North America and part of the province of Nova Scotia, Canada.

The Gulf of St. Lawrence is the outlet of the North American Great Lakes via the St. Lawrence River into the Atlantic Ocean. The gulf is a semi-enclosed sea, covering an area of about 226,000 square kilometres (87,000 sq mi) and containing about 34,500 cubic kilometres (8,300 cu mi) of water, at an average depth of 152 metres (500 ft).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Canso Causeway</span>

The Canso Causeway is a 1,385 m (4,544 ft) rock-fill causeway crossing the Strait of Canso, connecting Cape Breton Island by road to the Nova Scotia peninsula. Its crest thickness is 40 m (130 ft), carrying the two vehicle traffic lanes of the Trans-Canada Highway, Nova Scotia Highway 104 on the mainland side, and Nova Scotia Highway 105 on the Cape Breton side, as well as the single track mainline of the Cape Breton and Central Nova Scotia Railway.

The Strait of Canso is a strait located in the province of Nova Scotia, Canada. It divides the Nova Scotia peninsula from Cape Breton Island.

Havre Boucher is a community in Antigonish County, Nova Scotia, Canada.

Canso may refer to:

St. Peter's is a small incorporated village located on Cape Breton Island in Richmond County, Nova Scotia, Canada.

The Eastern Shore is a region of the Canadian province of Nova Scotia. It is the Atlantic coast running northeast from Halifax Harbour to the eastern end of the peninsula at the Strait of Canso.

Point Tupper is a rural community in Richmond County, Nova Scotia, on the Strait of Canso, in western Cape Breton Island.

The Nova Scotia peninsula is a peninsula on the Atlantic coast of North America.

Port Hastings is a unincorporated settlement on Cape Breton Island, within the Municipality of the County of Inverness, Canada. The population in 2021 was 90.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Canso Canal Bridge</span> Bridge in Canada

The Canso Canal Bridge is a rotating swing bridge in Nova Scotia, Canada. It crosses the Canso Canal at the eastern end of the Canso Causeway, connecting the Nova Scotia peninsula to Cape Breton Island. The bridge carries the 2 traffic lanes of Highway 104 as well as a single track railway line operated by the Cape Breton and Central Nova Scotia Railway (CBNS).

Aulds Cove is a community in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, located in both Antigonish County and Guysborough County.

Chedabucto Bay is a large bay on the eastern coast of mainland Nova Scotia between the Atlantic Ocean and the Strait of Canso next to Guysborough County. At the entrance to Chedabucto Bay is the community of Canso at the head is the community of Guysborough and on the other end is the town of Mulgrave.

St. Georges Bay is a bay with shore on the Nova Scotia peninsula and Cape Breton Island, Canada, thus comprising a sub-basin of the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

The Barra Strait is a 1.22 km (0.76 mi) wide channel located in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia. It connects the northern and southern basins of Bras d'Or Lake, an inland saltwater body that dominates the centre of Cape Breton Island. The border between two of Cape Breton Island's counties runs through the strait; the community of Grand Narrows, in Cape Breton County, is situated on the eastern shore while the community of Iona, in Victoria County is situated on the western shore.

Lennox Passage is a navigable waterway between Cape Breton Island and Isle Madame in Nova Scotia, Canada. Small craft use the relatively protected Passage traveling to and from St. Peters Canal at the village of St. Peter's and the Strait of Canso to avoid sailing around the east coast of Cape Breton in the open Atlantic Ocean.

Balache Point Lighthouse also known as Balache Point Range Rear Lighthouse is an active Canadian lighthouse located next to the Canso Canal, near Port Hastings, Inverness County, Nova Scotia. The salt shaker style light, which sits on a small hillock on the Cape Breton side of the canal, is the second lighthouse to be built on the site.

The Barra Strait Bridge is a Canadian road bridge crossing the Barra Strait of Bras d'Or Lake, carrying Nova Scotia Route 223 between Iona, Victoria County, on the West side, and Grand Narrows, Cape Breton County on the east side. The bridge incorporates a double leaf bascule section at its eastern end to permit the continued passage of marine traffic through the strait.

References

↑ "Canadian Coast Guard vessel traffic services". Canadian Coast Guard. Retrieved 21 May 2022.
↑ King, Nancy (2009-08-23). "Canso Canal closing early this year for renovations". The Cape Breton Post. Transcontinental Media Inc. Retrieved 2009-08-24.^{[ permanent dead link ]}

External links

- Information from the Canadian Coast Guard

Coordinates: 45°38′53″N61°24′50″W / 45.64806°N 61.41389°W / 45.64806; -61.41389 (Canso Canal)

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[1] "Canadian Coast Guard vessel traffic services". Canadian Coast Guard. Retrieved 21 May 2022.

[renovate-2] King, Nancy (2009-08-23). "Canso Canal closing early this year for renovations". The Cape Breton Post. Transcontinental Media Inc. Retrieved 2009-08-24.^{[ permanent dead link ]}

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