A slow-moving but super strong piece of equipment will be called into action in New West this weekend as part of the Pattullo Bridge replacement project.
Starting Friday night and continuing until early Monday morning, road closures will be in effect in New Westminster so work can be done to replace the Royal Avenue overpass bridge deck.
As part of that work, a self-propelled modular transporter (SPMT) will be used to raise and remove the existing deck, and take it to a nearby location. Once the Royal Avenue connections are prepared for the arrival of the new overpass deck, the SPMT will transport the new deck, lift it above Royal Avenue using its jacking system and lower it into place.
“The positive part of using this system is that you can do it within a few days, as opposed to doing over months of rebuilding the deck,” said Wendy Itagawa, executive project director of the Pattullo Bridge replacement project. “There will be some impacts over the weekend, but it’ll be short-term.”
Itagawa said the Royal Avenue overpass is being upgraded to meet current seismic design standards.
“It is almost 70 years old,” she said. “We really want this connection to be within the same design standard as the bridge. It’s a key connection on Royal for traffic, plus the main artery off the bridge goes underneath.”
Sam Young, technical director for the project, said the new overpass is similar to the current overpass, but it will include an additional sidewalk. Both overpasses weigh about 600 tons.
“As part of the project, we’re also adding a sidewalk on the north side of the overpass,” he said. “Right now, there’s only one sidewalk on the south side; as part of the deck replacement and overall project road improvement, we’ll be having a sidewalk that connects the neighbourhood over there to the sidewalk connection on Granville at First.”
According to the Pattullo Bridge replacement project team, an SPMT is a large, multi-axel platform that’s computer operated. They’re most often used to lift, transport and install large structural components of a bridge or overpass.
Young said that SPMT equipment has been used all over the world to transport large infrastructure.
“In the past it was even used to transport the space shuttle, not this particular equipment, but a similar type,” he said. It’s a very slow-moving piece of equipment that can take a lot of weight.”
How slow does it go?
“It’s a few metres per minute. Very slowly,” Young said. “That’s just to account for uneven terrain.”
Work on the deck replacement will get started on Friday night, when the SPMT will depart from the staging area where it’s currently located – an area near Royal Avenue dubbed “the teardrop” by crews, as that’s the shape of the site when viewed from above.
“The SPMT equipment will slowly make its way down this loop ramp, which is being closed for the weekend, into place underneath the existing bridge deck. It’s going to take the bridge deck away – back to the teardrop area,” Young said. “And then the equipment’s going to move under the new deck, lift it up, and then transport it into its new home.”
Young said this weekend’s work is the first time and only time the SPMT will be used on the Pattullo Bridge replacement project. On-site operators will control the movement of the SPMT.
“It’s a very carefully planned move,” Young said.
Anyone interested in watching the slow-moving SPMT in action will have a good vantage point from a lower section of Queen’s Park overlooking the Pattullo Bridge (near Granville Street and Royal Avenue.) The tentative schedule calls for the removal of the existing deck on Friday night/Saturday morning and the placement of the new deck on Saturday (during the day and evening).
Traffic impacts
To allow this work to take place, Pattullo Bridge will be closed to northbound traffic travelling into New Westminster from 7 p.m. on Friday, April 28 until 5 a.m. on Monday, May 1. The bridge will remain open to pedestrians, cyclists and first responders at all times.
Motorists will be able to travel from New Westminster to Surrey on the bridge, but they will be subject to detours and delays. The Royal Avenue on-ramp and the bridge connector will be closed from Friday night until Monday morning, so motorists will be detoured to the Columbia Street on-ramp.
According to the project team, signage will indicate all traffic pattern changes, and traffic control personnel will be on-site to direct traffic, pedestrians and cyclists.
Come Monday morning, Royal Avenue will reopen to traffic – with a brand new overpass in place.
For now, the existing overpass will remain in “the teardrop” while the Transportation Investment Corporation and its contractor finalize a plan on taking it apart.
“They’re going to take it apart with equipment as well,” Itagawa said. “There will be some noise with it.”
Itagawa said the project team is working to make sure all the road connections are ready for when the new bridge opens as well.
“The bridge work is ongoing,” she said. “But within New West, over this year there’s quite a few road, and also the multi-use path work, that’s going to be happening. So you’ll see a lot more activity this year as compared to the past few years.”
Later this year, Front Street will be closed to traffic for about six months in the summer and fall so work can be done on the spans on the new bridge – work that can’t be done when vehicles are travelling below.
“We’re always appreciative of the community’s patience with the project, understanding that there is a lot of activity happening right in central New West,” Itagawa said. “And we thank everyone for their patience and support on the project.”
The Record recently heard from an area resident expressing concern about the non-stop, 24/7 construction noise from the project, including the “smashing up of the road” by an excavator at 3 a.m. which made it impossible to sleep.
“We’ve had a few complaints, but there hasn’t been too many,” Itagawa said. “Generally we work with people ahead of time so people understand the activities coming up, and we try and minimize where we can.”
