The final pieces of the old Johnson Street Bridge will be removed starting Friday with the arrival of the giant crane known as the Dynamic Beast.
“This is the last time this crane shows up in the harbour,” said bridge project manager Jonathan Huggett, “so it’s got four big pieces of steel to take out.”
Still to be extracted from the old bridge structure are the 180-tonne counterweight truss, the 355-tonne tower truss, the 160-tonne east span and the 90-tonne west span.
The 850-tonne concrete counterweight has already been removed, with the help of industrial-sized jackhammers.
Final removal of the remaining pieces was expected to happen sooner, but the Vancouver-based Dynamic Beast is in high demand.
The barge-mounted crane will be at the south side of the old and new bridges from Friday to Sunday. The marine channel will be closed during its stay.
The Dynamic Beast crane barge is coming back to #yyj one last time to remove the last four pieces of the old Johnson Street Bridge. It’s here Fri-Sun with some temporary closures necessary during lifts https://t.co/Br9aFJzG6h pic.twitter.com/ZFXxagozlK
— City of Victoria (@CityOfVictoria) June 5, 2018
Full, one-hour closures of the new bridge should be expected between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. on Friday. Closures will be confined to non-peak traffic times and will affect vehicles, bicycles and pedestrians.
Closures on Saturday and Sunday will take place between 7 a.m. and 6 p.m. and could last for several hours at a time.
“As soon as that steel is in the air, we shut down anybody anywhere near it, just in case something goes wrong,” Huggett said.
The City of Victoria will give about one hour’s notice of closures using the media, johnsonstreetbridge.com and its @CityofVictoria Twitter account.
Huggett said the crane can operate only when winds are less than 25 kilometres an hour.
He said a few paint touch-ups and other minor details on the new bridge could be taken care of during one of the closures.
“We might take the opportunity on the weekend to do an extended closure so we can finish off some of the work.”
The best vantage points to view the work are Reeson Park off Wharf Street or the waterfront walkway by the Delta Ocean Point Hotel.
