City of Edmonton officials said Friday the crane to stabilize twisted steel on the new 102 Avenue Bridge over Groat Road was in place.
Four steel girders buckled early Monday, as they were being installed on the new bridge – the failure extended the closure of Groat Road, displacing tens of thousands of daily commuters.
In the days that followed, a large crane was brought in to stabilize the twisted metal, so engineers could inspect the girders and reopen Groat Road.
The super crane, nicknamed the ‘Irish Rover’ is weighs more than 1,200 tonnes – and there are only seven like it in North America. The piece of machinery is being paid for by the contractor.
“If we couldn’t get the crane on site week one, we wouldn’t have had hope of moving forward,” Barry Belcourt with the City of Edmonton said.
Officials said Friday that the crane was in place and ready to mobilize, and officials were ready to investigate what caused the girders to bend.
“Right now we are finalizing our strategy on how to hook up to the girders, when you look at all the girders there’s a lot of tension and stress,” Belcourt said.
Belcourt said in the next week, crews would hook up the crane to the structure, then determine if the girders can be repaired – the main goal in using the crane is to ensure the massive girders are stable.
“One hundred times 7, nobody wants that to fall down on anybody, so we will not open Groat Road until everything is one hundred percent safe,” Belcourt said.
Official said the crane would mobilize Monday morning.
On Friday, officials said Groat Road is expected to reopen on April 7.
With files from Ashley Molnar and Dan Grummett
