Quebec’s public dam service branch, the Direction des barrages publics, undertook a pre-construction study with the objective of analyzing different scenarios to replace the Mathieu-D’Amours Bridge. DPBP mandated Activa Environnement to perform biological characterization work for the site and to analyze the environmental impacts of each scenario. The characterization aimed to define the interaction of the dam with the river environment and to determine the issues associated with local fauna and flora species in order to develop the dam replacement concept.