A week after steel girders on the 102 Avenue Bridge over Groat Road buckled during installation – the City of Edmonton said plans are in place to start the process of relieving the pressure on the steel, and assessing any possible damage.
On Monday, officials said plans to stabilize the steel girders were approved over the weekend – and the super crane was in place to start the process, the process of attaching the crane to the girders was set to start Monday as well.
Once the crane is in place, officials said, the process of lifting the girders will start – that’s expected Tuesday, March 24. Later in the week, it’s hoped engineers and contractors will start inspecting the bridge structure to find out how to stabilize it to allow Groat Road to be reopened.
“We’ll do our girder assessment at that time, will the girders flex back in place? If not, what girders are damaged?” Barry Belcourt with Roads Design and Construction said. “There’s a whole bunch of options we have to look at and we’ll take the rest of the week to determine what we’re going to do with the girders.”
The news comes a week after four steel girders buckled during installation on the new bridge – the failure happened in the early hours of Monday, March 16.
As a result, officials closed Groat Road until the bridge could be stabilized and an investigation carried out as to why the girders buckled, and if any of them could be repaired. In the week that followed, crews brought in a super crane to help stabilize the bridge.
City officials said they plan to have Groat Road open on April 7.
