Temporary bridge keeps rail traffic moving during road-widening

Bolton, Ontario — Acrow Bridge supplied a temporary railroad bridge to the City of London in Ontario for use during a project to widen a heavily trafficked road. The site of the construction is within the busy Western University district, where a bridge dating from 1931 has carried Canadian Pacific Railway traffic over two lanes of vehicular traffic. The road has been subject to heavy congestion at peak travel times and, at completion of the construction, the wider road will carry four lanes of traffic.

The first segment of the overall project was replacing the existing rail bridge to accommodate the wider road below. An Acrow Bridge was rented as a detour to carry the rail traffic alongside the existing structure while the permanent bridge is constructed.

The modular steel bridge from Acrow is 70 feet long by 18 feet wide. It has rails over a timber deck and a Cooper E80 load rating. Assembly and installation of the temporary structure was completed in five days in September. Due to site area access, the bridge was assembled nearby and then lifted into place using two cranes.

The Acrow structure was open to rail traffic on November 7 and it is anticipated that it will be in place until May 2018. The contractor for the project is McLean Taylor Construction, and design engineering services were provided by the consulting firm AECOM.

In 2009, for his final year’s engineering assignment at Western University (formerly University of Western Ontario), Gordon Scott, P.Eng., Senior Project Manager for Acrow, was part of a team that designed a replacement bridge for the old CPR bridge.  As Gordon had spent his summers working as a student with Acrow, he acquired the knowledge to contribute the detour bridge aspect of this project. Gordon more recently worked with the design engineering firm AECOM to develop the final detour bridge design.

“Acrow’s structure proved the ideal solution for this project,” said Jack Bishara, P.Eng., Project Engineer with Acrow. “Using a rental structure allows for a fixed dollar amount to be allocated to the detour bridge, and it can help ensure a project stays on or ahead of schedule, important for both contractors and government entities alike.”

Added Bill Killeen, President and CEO of Acrow Bridge, “Our prefabricated modular steel bridges are an ideal choice for cost-effective and rapid temporary or permanent bridging applications. We use only the highest quality steel from mills that hold certification from the International Organization of Standardization (ISO), and our bridges have been full-scale tested for load-carrying capability by multiple organizations.”