Construction has started on a new, one-kilometre-long bridge on Highway 29 over the Halfway River about 45 kilometres northwest of Fort St. John, British Columbia.
For the past year, crews have been doing prep work, geotechnical and environmental investigations and clearing vegetation and debris to get the site ready for the bridge build and realignment of the highway.
Trucks have been hauling rocky material from West Pine Quarry to use for realignment of the highway, and that is expected to continue until the end of April. The contractor, Eiffage-Infracon Halfway River Joint Venture, is now moving equipment and materials to the site and disposing of wood waste and vegetation.
The plan is to build a new bridge about 500 metres from the existing one and 3.7 kilometres of two-lane highway over the next two years to make way for a reservoir which will be filled when construction is finished on the Site C hydroelectric project. The work is necessary because the reservoir will cover the existing bridge and highway.
Cost of the project is nearly $105 million. It is one of several projects planned in the area to accommodate the Site C project. Work on the bridge project will take place 24 hours a day and should be finished in 2022.
The bridge project includes installation of steel piles and construction of a temporary berm within the river. A total of 12 piers will be used to support the new crossing.
David Conway, community relations manager for the Site C Clean Energy Project, says when the reservoir filling begins in September 2023, it will widen the Peace River by, on average, two to three times the width of the current river, covering parts of Highway 29. The reservoir will be 83 kilometres long.
BC Hydro is partnering with the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure to realign seven separate segments and build 30 kilometres along the Highway 29 corridor, including new bridges at Cache Creek, Lynx Creek, Dry Creek and Farrell Creek as well as at Halfway River. Work on the various segments began in 2018 and will continue until mid-2023.
Highway 29 is a 70-kilometre stretch of road that winds along the north side of the Peace River in northeastern B.C. and connects Hudson’s Hope to the Alaska Highway and Fort St. John.
Conway says each segment has its own timeline and realignment of the highway involves geotechnical, environmental and archeological studies, as well as moving electrical transmission and phone lines. The highway will remain open during construction.
At the Halfway River site, the new highway and bridge will be built north of the existing structure and thoroughfare. Geotechnical investigations for the bridge project have been completed and the build is now under way.
“Bridge construction began in early 2020,” says Conway. “Currently, Eiffage-Infracon is working on earthworks and bridge preparation.”
While the Eiffage Infracon Halfway River Joint Venture is currently doing the work specific to the Halfway River segment, the other segments may have different builders.
In addition to the Halfway River project, work is already well under way on other highway segments of Highway 29. At Cache Creek West, work on a four-kilometre segment began in 2018 and is expected to finish in 2020, while at Cache Creek East work on a six-kilometre section began in 2019 and will finish in 2023.
At Dry Creek and Lynx Creek, work begins this year and will finish in 2021 and 2023, respectively. Dry Creek is a 1.4-kilometre section while Lynx Creek is a nine-kilometre stretch.
Meanwhile, work on a three-kilometre-long section at Farrell Creek East and a two-kilometre section at Farrell Creek are slated to begin in 2021 and finish in 2022 and 2023, respectively.
While filling the reservoir will be one of the last activities, clearing the area of trees and vegetation has already begun.
Conway says the various projects are expected to employ between 300 and 600 workers at any given time. The workers will include machine operators, labourers, carpenters, ironworkers, and utility workers.
During the construction process, the Highway 29 corridor will be a busy place with dump trucks hauling gravel, stone and larger rocks used for erosion protection.
With realigning segments of highway, excavating, grading, rolling and paving will also take place as well as drainage and culvert work, and temporary facilities such as offices and storage and refuelling sites will also be built. Once newly constructed highway segments are levelled and graded, they will be paved.
In some areas, existing streams and watercourses may be diverted during construction and temporary bridges and access points will be constructed. Meanwhile, in areas of bridge construction there will be pile driving.
Once the paved highway segments are finished, the existing Highway 29 roadway, bridges and other infrastructure will be decommissioned. The plan calls for BC Hydro to remove and reuse the pavement and gravel, restore natural drainage channels, develop fish habitat, and replant areas outside the reservoir.
Construction areas, laydown areas and temporary access roads are slated to be restored to their prior state once construction is done.
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BC HYDRO - This segment of Highway 29 at the eastern end of the Cache Creek taken in December 2019 is being replaced with a new two-lane, 4.6-kilometre highway, including a 600 metre bridge.
the complete and total crooked corruption from the federal govt down to the crooked corrupt bc govt of the day is unparalled and have not included crooked corrupt bc hydro-samsung-aciona-snc-lavalin—these crooked corrupt corporations raking in billions of bc taxpayer dollars all for crooked corrupt corporate and political greed-meanwhile giving away bc,s natural gas -oil-electricity-water for virtually no royalties-all involved should be held crimminally accountable and jailed for treason against bc-the will full destruction of the peace river valley and its wildlife habitat–there is absolutly no enviromental stewardship in canada–mark meiers-charlie lk bc