Traffic came to a stop near the Johnson Street Bridge Wednesday morning as Victoria firefighters were called to remove a skateboard that had somehow been lodged high in the bridge girders.
The skateboard was first noticed by the bridge operator, who saw it “rocking around in the wind,” said Victoria Fire acting platoon Capt. Tim Loewen.
“He was concerned it was going to blow free and land on a passing vehicle or, even worse, someone walking on the boardwalk on the side of the bridge,” Loewen said.
VicPD blocked off access to the bridge for about 15 minutes, as firefighters removed the skateboard.
“We just put a man in a bucket and made a straight shot up to it and grabbed it,” Loewen said. “Victoria Police sent two units to block traffic.”
Loewen said he has no idea how the skateboard ended up on the bridge.
“We hadn’t even tried to figure out how it got up there. It was pretty weird how it hooked up there,” he said.
Meanwhile, the final shipment of steel for the new Johnson Street Bridge is on its way to Victoria from China.
The steel has left Shanghai on a heavy-lift ship. Crossing the Pacific is expected to take about 25 days, and the ship is scheduled to arrive here in late September.
The steel, which includes the bridge deck structure and pedestrian and multi-use pathway, will be offloaded in Victoria or Vancouver, depending on timing.
It will be cleaned and inspected for possible damage during shipping.
When the bridge-deck structure arrives in Victoria, work will be done in the Upper Harbour to attach the walkways to the deck structure and to install lighting and the new deck surface.
The barge carrying the first shipment of steel for the new Johnson Street Bridge arrived in Victoria last week, passing under the existing Blue Bridge after a month-long journey from China.
The first shipment of steel included the north and south rings, which weigh about 350 tons each, the lower counterweight and the temporary structure, called the falsework, used to support the components of the bridge as they’re pieced together.
The new bridge is slated to open to traffic by March 30, 2018.
Originally estimated at $63 million in 2009, the price grew to $92.8 million when the contract to build it was awarded to PCL Constructors Westcoast in 2012. Construction began in May 2013, and the price has escalated to $105 million.
The final bill for the project is still unknown, as costs have not been determined for the fenders to protect the bridge piers.
— With a file from Katie DeRosa
