Old Walterdale Bridge ends century of service

EDMONTON – Edmonton’s old Walterdale Bridge is coming down after serving the city for more than a century.

Major demolition work has already begun with the removal of the north truss. Crews used a crane to lift the truss and set it onto the north river berm for dismantling.

Demolition will be staged over the next few months, with completion anticipated for the end of 2017.

After the north truss is removed, the south truss will be lifted and dismantled, followed by the centre truss. Both the south and centre trusses will be lifted onto a temporary tower on the south berm, then moved to the south shore for dismantling.

Finally, crews will remove the concrete piers from the river and bridge abutments.

After the bridge steel is dismantled it will be given to the primary contractor who is in charge of taking it off site for recycling. However, the city noted that some portions of steel will be salvaged for repurposing in a future project.

Construction on the new Walterdale Bridge began in 2013. The new three-lane bridge will also feature a sweeping multi-use path that will connect to the upgraded trail system in the area.

The bridge is a structural steel arch with two 56-metre-high arches spanning the driver supported by 600-cubic-metre reinforced concrete thrust blocks anchored 20 metres below the water surface. This eliminates in-river piers that are problematic in the winter climate with heavy ice flow at spring breakup, explained a release.

The two arches are connected by a series of arch ribs and top struts welded to both arches across the entire span.

The bridge deck and roadways are supported by steel cables hanging from the arches. The project has faced its share of challenges. Issues with steel fabricated in Korea resulted in the project getting a year behind schedule and caused several lawsuits.