Dynamic Beast makes its way to Victoria for bridge project

VICTORIA — The Dynamic Beast is coming to Victoria.

The Beast is one of the largest cranes in Western Canada. Crews will use the crane barge for five days in December (it arrives Dec. 8) to lift and place steel rings and the lower counterweight into the bascule pier for the new Johnson Street Bridge project.

The Beast is 330-feet-long and 120-feet-wide and will leave only 10 feet on either side of the narrowest part of the waterway, explains a release. Its boom is 400-feet-long.

The steel rings are part of the main superstructure pieces that make up the new bridge. The lower counterweight is one of the main pieces that will help raise and lower the new bridge. In January, the bridge deck span, currently on a barge being worked on in Victoria’s Upper Harbour, will be attached to the rings.

Construction of a new bridge for downtown Victoria began in May 2013. It is the largest infrastructure project ever undertaken by the City of Victoria.