The original Perley Bridge spanned the Ottawa River, joining Ontario and Quebec. In 1979, a portion of the bridge deck was replaced with concrete reinforced with epoxy-coated rebar. Within 20 years over 30% of the riding surface of the west lane was patched due to corrosion problems.

The Ontario Ministry of Transportation contracted with Tinnea & Associates and the U.S. Department of Energy's Albany Research Center to perform a failure analysis on deck slab panels removed from the Perley Bridge. The results of that investigation are presented in the Ministry's 102 page Technical Report MI-180, Performance of Epoxy-Coated Steel Reinforcement in the Deck of the Perley Bridge.