WATCH ABOVE: The long and difficult job of dismantling the old Port Mann bridge is now heading into its final stages. Brian Coxford gets up close for an exclusive look at the process.
VANCOUVER – It’s a meticulous process that will take a year-and-a-half in total, but crews are more than halfway through dismantling the old Port Mann Bridge.
Global News got an exclusive inside look on Monday.
This week, they are removing the arches that once made the Port Mann the longest arch bridge in Canada.
They are actually dismantling it in reverse of how it was built, taking out the middle section first, then removing the outer arches.
They’ve already removed the asphalt and concrete and much of the rebar support.
All of it will be recycled.
The entire process will cost 40 million dollars – it cost 25 million to build the bridge back in 1964.
“Forty, fifty years ago, they didn’t have the kind of environmental regulations that we had today,” said Max Logan from the Port Mann / Highway 1 Project. “And so decommissioning was done with explosives, you pushed the button, it ended up in the river. And you scooped up the large chunks.”
“It’s really a different way of doing things today,” he added. “You’ve got permits and environmental regulations, so it’s a very slow and complex process to make sure that everything is carefully decommissioned and nothing ends up in the river and it’s all properly managed and accounted for.”
– With files from Brian Coxford
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