Pontoons Into Place

The next few weeks will be teeming with activity at the site of the new William Bennett Floating Bridge.

Project Director for the Ministry of Transportation, Jon Buckle, says the two pontoons that have been moored a few hundred metres north of the construction site for a few months will finally be floated into position this week.

"Later this week, we're hoping to move pontoon one and two that are connected together, into place. There's going to be a long pipe that will hold the first pontoon off from the last pier on the west side of the new bridge," says Buckle.

He says workers will put the pontoons into place by moving one of the anchors off the old bridge and connecting it to the new one.

Five of the nine pontoons that will make up the floating portion of the bridge have been finished. The first two are near the structure, the other three have been moored near the Bear Creek graving docks.

The sixth pontoon is due to be launched around the middle of August.

Buckle says there is a rough schedule as to when the pontoons will be anchored into place, with number three being put into place several weeks after the first two.

"There's quite a process of actually connecting them and doing all the tightening and post-tensioning. It takes about 10 days or so to complete that task before they are ready to bring in the next one. You can expect to see by the end of the summer or early fall probably the first four or five pontoons connected together."

Meantime, Buckle says construction activity will pick up on the main bridge structure this week as well.

He says the wooden forms are in place up to pier three which will allow them to begin pouring concrete for the bridge deck itself.

"They are going to actually start this Wednesday pouring the concrete deck, so that will be a big step forward for them. They've got a special deck surfacing machine that they use for that. It's like a big bridge that runs on rails from one side of the bridge to the other which allows the concrete to be placed."

He says in terms of activity, this is a very important time for the builders.

"We're kind of getting to that peak period here. It's the final summer where we have the good weather before the bridge opens, so there's a lot of work that's happening concurrently. Obviously there's the work on the pontoons, we have the fixed portion of the bridge moving ahead very well and the approaches on both sides are being worked on, so there's a lot happening right now."

Buckle says construction continues to run on time, with an anticipated opening of July, 2008.