Bridge being rebuilt
$9.1-million Buffalo River Bridge project to be completed this year
Paul Bickford
Northern News Services
Monday, June 5, 2017
HAY RIVER
The second year of a rehabilitation project is well underway on the Buffalo River Bridge, about 60 kilometres east of Hay River.
It is also a bit of a preview of a project that is expected to start next year on the Pine Point Bridge over the Hay River.
Kevin McLeod, assistant deputy minister with the Department of Infrastructure, said design work started years ago on the Buffalo River Bridge project, but actual work on the bridge itself began in July.
"It ran until the end of the construction season in October of 2016," he noted. "Then they took a break for the wintertime, and now they're back at year two and the final year of rehabilitation. And they'll go on until the end of October of 2017."
McLeod said the rehabilitation of the bridge is a massive undertaking.
"And we're certainly very proud of it," he added.
An Edmonton-based general contracting company, Eiffage Innovative Canada, submitted a winning tender of $9.1 million to do the work.
McLeod noted that right now 25 people are working on the project, but that number has sometimes been as high as 60 or as low as 20.
The main contractor brings in expert sub-contractors as needed, for example for sandblasting or strengthening the steel.
While there is a work camp on site, most of the workers stay in Hay River and commute to the project.
Some NWT residents have been employed on the project, but most of the workers are specialists from the south.
"It's an over 50-year-old bridge that needs rehabilitation," said McLeod. "It needs to be repainted. It needs to be sandblasted. Some of the structural steel needs to be replaced and re-bolted in."
Over the past few weeks, the deck is being torn out and resurfaced.
And since it is a steel bridge that contracts and expands according to the temperature, its expansion joints have to be replaced.
"So it is getting a complete rehabilitation," said McLeod. "With the current traffic patterns and the current loads of trucks, it should give it another 30 to 35 years of life."
The bridge was built in 1964 and had a design life of 50 years.
McLeod said the project is similar to what will take place on the Pine Point Bridge, which is also a steel truss structure.
"So generally the rehabilitation will follow the same types of things," he said.
"But we're in the design phase for that next project. Maybe there'll be more work of one nature and less of another. It all depends on the bridge and how it's been weathering, its age and what exactly needs to be done with it."
The Pine Point Bridge is about the same age.
It is slightly shorter than the 121-metre long Buffalo River Bridge.
The Pine Point Bridge project is currently expected to begin next year and take two years to complete.
Mayor Brad Mapes said it is good to see the work on the Buffalo River Bridge and he is looking forward to the rehabilitation of the Pine Point Bridge.
"I think the GNWT has done a great job in the fact of realizing the future economic growth that's going to happen in this region and the bridges needed to be addressed," said Mapes.
"And they're being proactive and it's great to see that happening."
