Mammoet Canada Eastern Ltd. will remove two spans over Clyde Avenue and replace them with spans four lanes wide. The work will begin in the evening on August 2, 2008, and the bridge is expected to be open for traffic by around noon the next day, August 3.
OTTAWA
Construction as a spectator sport is making a return to Ottawa.
From special bleachers to be erected nearby, and via a live Webcast, spectators will be able to watch early next month as an expressway bridge is lifted out of the roadway, hauled to a nearby yard, and prefabricated replacement spans brought in and slipped into place.
The job is expected to take 17 hours.
A similar job at the nearby Island Park bridge last summer drew a crowd that at times exceeded 1,000 people, some of whom stayed through much of the night. An unknown number also watched on the Web.
The lifting and moving will be done by Mammoet Canada Eastern Ltd., the same firm that carried out last summer’s job.
It involves removing two spans, each three lanes wide, over Clyde Ave., in the city’s near west end, and replacing them with spans four lanes wide.
The work will begin around dinnertime on August 2, 2008, and the bridge is expected to be open for traffic by lunchtime the next day.
The job is part of a long-term project to upgrade bridges on Highway 417 through the city of Ottawa. This job will cost about $9.6 million, a million more than last summer’s job.
Frank Vanderlaan, an engineer with the provincial ministry of transportation, said using the rapid-lift technology will save about $2.4 million, when compared with conventional bridge replacements that can take anywhere from 14 to 21 months.
The system uses immense, remote-controlled transporters. They will slip under an existing span, lift it, and slowly drive away with it.
When both spans have been removed, the process is reversed to bring in the new spans and gently lower them into place. The replacement spans have been built at a nearby city-owned wintertime snow yard. Each replacement span is 21 metres long, weighs 650 tonnes, and has a design life of 75 years.
Last year’s project marked the first time the rapid-lift technology had been used on a provincial highway in Canada, and although a small snag added a couple of hours to the job, the ministry considered it a success.
As a result, the ministry has said that, as well as this year’s Clyde Ave. project, it is considering using the technique on other replacement jobs.
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