Walters worked to replace an old trestle bridge in St. Catharines, Ontario with a striking new arched bridge. The constraints of the valley and the existing roads ruled out conventional construction, leading to a more challenging, creative approach to bridge building.
Walters supplied and fabricated the massive and highly complex truss elements for the arch span. We were also responsible for the erection of the entire bridge which included sophisticated construction engineering, crane/landing equipment and a team of highly skilled ironworkers.
The Burgoyne bridge had to be constructed without disrupting traffic both across the existing trestle bridge and on the provincial highway that runs below. The size of the girders and the limitations of the site prevented us from placing a large crane below the bridge. So, rather than conventional erection, we launched the girders incrementally, pushing each girder out along what had already been constructed.
Completing the first girder span took us 59 days, with construction happening through the dead of winter. Once that span was in place, we were able to open two lanes of traffic on the new structure and to remove the old bridge entirely. This allowed traffic to remain uninterrupted through the erection of the second span and the tri-chord arches.
ARCHITECTS
We used 3D modeling to simulate the entire construction process, allowing us to anticipate and deal with all challenges before construction began.
