EDMONTON — The big moment in the 102 Avenue Bridge repairs will come on Tuesday, when the City of Edmonton will find out if the buckled girders need to be replaced.
Over the past week crews have been setting up a large support crane that will be used to take the weight of the bridge, in order for crews to assess the four 40-tonne girders that buckled as much as a metre and a half while being installed last week.
There are only seven of these massive cranes in all of North America, and luckily the one being used on Tuesday only had to be brought in from the Acheson Industrial Area, just west of Edmonton.
Engineers will find out on Tuesday if the girders will flex back into place, the city said during an update on Monday.
“So tomorrow when we take the weight off the girders and let the crane take it over, and if we can stabilize all the girders safely in place, that means we can open Groat Road faster,” said Barry Belcourt, Roads Design and Construction Branch Manager with the City of Edmonton.
Belcourt said the snowfall over the weekend did not affect the timeline.
WATCH: Barry Belcourt with the City of Edmonton explains the steps needed to stabilize the 102 Avenue Bridge and get Groat Road open.
Last week the city outlined a three week plan to fix the bridge.
During week one, the larger 1,200-tonne crane was brought in from Acheson and assembled. On Friday, city officials said they’d met their week-one goal for the repair work.
Now in week two, the crane will be used to stabilize the bridge and the bent girders.
During week three, crews will address the damage by either removing or repairing the bent girders. Belcourt said Groat Road will not be re-opened until the bridge is stabilized and vehicles can drive under it safely. He hopes that will happen quicker than the three week plan.
“So that is one option if everything goes according to Plan A. So we’ve developed Plan A, Plan B, Plan C, and so the worst-case scenario is the full three weeks.”
The girders became bent last Monday, forcing the city to extend a weekend-long Groat Road closure indefinitely. In an effort to relieve congestion as an estimated 40,000 drivers navigate around the closure, the City of Edmonton has modified traffic signals and restricted on-side parking in Edmonton’s core.
WATCH: Barry Belcourt with the City of Edmonton explains the safety factors behind the 102 Avenue Bridge girder repair process.
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