NEW PORT MANN BRIDGE TAKES SHAPE: PROJECT 1/3 COMPLETE

The Best Place on Earth

NEWS RELEASE

For Immediate Release
2010PREM0139-000853

July 22, 2010

Office of the Premier
Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure

NEW PORT MANN BRIDGE TAKES SHAPE: PROJECT 1/3 COMPLETE

SURREY – The Port Mann Bridge/Highway 1 Improvement Project is one-third complete, on time and on budget, Premier Gordon Campbell and Transportation and Infrastructure Minister Shirley Bond announced today as pre-cast bridge segments were installed on the new bridge.

“Once completed, the new Port Mann Bridge and Highway 1 upgrades will have significant benefits for families who use this corridor to get to and from work,” said Premier Campbell. “By reducing round-trip travel times by up to an hour per day, commuters will have more time to spend with their family and loved ones. The project is also supporting our economic recovery, creating approximately 8,000 jobs.”

“The Port Mann Bridge is one of the most important corridors in Western Canada for the movement of goods and people and it is essential that we reduce congestion,” said Bond. “The new bridge is scheduled to open to traffic in 2012, a full year ahead of schedule, and will give commuters, truckers and transit users a faster, more efficient trip to and from their destinations, cutting travel times by up to 30 per cent.”

The bridge will provide badly needed capacity to meet current and future traffic demand, including a new RapidBus service that will allow commuters to travel all the way from a new Langley transit exchange to Burnaby SkyTrain in 23 minutes. This will provide for the first bus service across the Port Mann Bridge in well over 20 years. In addition to RapidBus service, the bridge will be built to accommodate potential light rapid transit at a future date, and it will expand networks for cyclists and pedestrians.

The project also includes widening Highway 1, upgrading interchanges, and improving access and safety from McGill Street in Vancouver to 216th Street in Langley, a distance of approximately 37 kilometres. One lane of highway will be added in each direction west of the new bridge, and two lanes in each direction east of the bridge, one of which will be an HOV lane.

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Contact:

Bridgitte Anderson

Press Secretary

Office of the Premier

604 307-7177

Dave Crebo

Communications Director

Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure

250 387-7787

BACKGROUNDER

PORT MANN BRIDGE/ HIGHWAY ONE PROJECT FACTS

· The new bridge will be more than two km long, have a 50-metre wide roadway surface and have a 42-metre clearance above high water level.

· The crossing will consist of a 10-lane, 850-metre cable-stayed bridge and precast concrete approaches of 1,170 metres. At 470 metres, the cable-stayed main span will be the second-longest in North America.

· 13,000 tonnes of structural steel will be used to construct the bridge.

· 1,158 precast concrete segments will be fabricated and used to build the bridge.

· A custom-made launching truss (blue and yellow gantry) is being used to install the 1,158 segments. The truss is 19 metres wide, 13 metres tall, 155 metres long and weighs 720 tonnes.

· 157,000 cubic metres of concrete will be used to construct the bridge.

· 28,000 tonnes of rebar will be used in the concrete.

· Total area of the new bridge will be 104,000 square metres.

· 25,000 tonnes of asphalt will be used for the deck riding surface.

· The bridge will be supported by 288 cables, 23 piers, two abutments, 108 drilled shafts, and 251 piles (122 land, 129 marine). There is a total length of 16 km of pile. There is a total length of 5,000 metres of drilled shafts.

· The cables will be attached to two pylon towers, each 160 m high – roughly the equivalent of a 50-storey building. The towers will stand approximately 75 metres above deck level.

· Highway improvements include:

o 30 new structures, including 15 at Cape Horn.

o New HOV/transit ramps at three locations, and one new truck-only ramp.

o 100,000 square metresof retaining walls.