From Saturdays Daily Gleaner:
A bridge not too far from ready
Published Saturday July 9th, 2011
Repairs | Company says project is slightly ahead of schedule despite weather
A1
By STEPHEN LLEWELLYN
[email protected]
The $80-million renovation to the Princess Margaret Bridge is a little bit ahead of schedule despite poor weather and occasional lightning that forced workers off the structure.
"It's coming," said Ken Dean, a project manager for SNC-Lavalin Construction Atlantic Inc.
"We are probably slightly ahead of schedule on the removal and the replacement of the deck panels."
The 1,075-metre-long bridge will be closed for four months for renovation work, which includes replacing the bridge deck, cleaning and repainting the steel, and upgrading the 22 concrete piers.
Once it's complete, the 52-year-old bridge should be good for another 50 years.
The replacement of the deck panels - each of which weighs 60,000 pounds - uses two mobile lifting frames that were specially built in Italy to the specifications of the bridge, said Dean.
"They've worked marvelously for us," he said.
"All that's left to be removed is the span over the Lincoln Road and the through truss span."
On their best shift, workers placed 16 deck panels in 12 hours, he said. There are about 200 people working on the bridge.
He said there are 11 deck panels left at the top of the hill on the south side at the former Mack Maritime site and another 20 or so on the north side.
He said the 220 panels were fabricated last year and shipped here.
Dean said the work on the deck under the through truss span at the centre of the bridge couldn't begin until the sand blasting, priming and repainting of the metal superstructure was finished and the scaffolding removed.
"You will notice that the tarps are off of that area again," he said.
Sharp-eyed observers may notice the superstructure has been repainted a slightly darker green.
Motorists passing under the bridge on the south side can see the surface concrete on the pier closest to the road looks like it has been chewed by a giant beaver.
All 22 piers have to have their surface concrete replaced.
"All of the concrete on the piers that you see above the water has to have 250 millimetres (10 inches) of that concrete removed all the way around and the old rebar in that area removed," said Dean.
"You replace it with stainless steel rebar and encapsulate that 250 mm with new concrete back over that roughened area."
To replace the concrete, a form is built and new concrete is poured, he said.
The weather hasn't been kind to the renovation work.
"It hasn't stopped raining save for the past two or three days," said Dean.
"The weather has made it miserable for the men to work out there ... But it certainly has not deterred them in any fashion."
The sole exception is lightning since the metal bridge is practically a giant lightning rod.
"This week and possibly last week, we've had two or three nights where we've had lightning and heavy rain," he said.
"The lightning is more of a safety factor and has more bearing on it than the rain.
"We remove everybody from that structure during any lightning until it is over."
"We can't take the chance that somebody might get electrocuted."
Dean said the bridge will be finished by Sept. 5 deadline.
"You go ahead in one area and you probably have some troubles in another," he said.
"It's typical construction."
Darren Charters, Fredericton's traffic engineer, said city drivers have been doing a good job handling the different traffic pattern created by the bridge closure.
"We're over the part where I was very concerned," he said.
"That's when school was in.
"Traffic conditions seem to get better every day."
Charters said he would describe the traffic on Westmorland Street Bridge as normal, which is surprising considering the circumstances.
People have spread out the rush-hour traffic from the normal half an hour to two hours by staying late or going home early, said Charters.
He said lots of people are biking, using the trail system or using the park-and-ride bus.
Charters said there are a couple of other construction projects that are either underway or about to start that may affect traffic flows or require detours.
They includes one on Forest Hill Road, which is underway, and closing parts of Brookside Drive and McLaren Avenue for street work that will start soon.
"We structure the contracts for that time of year when people are on vacation and the traffic is fairly light," he said.
"We'll have not only the signage and the detour routes marked, but we'll have advertisements in the radio and the newspaper like we normally do.
http://dailygleaner.canadaeast.com/cityregion/article/1422205
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