Dynamic Beast to remove final pieces of old bridge

The final pieces of the old Johnson Street Bridge will be removed next week with the arrival of the giant crane known as the Dynamic Beast.

“This is the last time this crane shows up in the harbour,” said bridge project manager Jonathan Huggett, “so it’s got four big pieces of steel to take out.”

Still to be extracted from the old bridge structure are the 180-tonne counterweight truss, the 355-tonne tower truss, the 160-tonne east span and the 90-tonne west span.

The 850-tonne concrete counterweight has already been removed, with the help of industrial-sized jackhammers.

Final removal of the remaining pieces was expected to happen sooner, but the Vancouver-based Dynamic Beast is in high demand.

The barge-mounted crane will be at the south side of the old and new bridges from June 7 to June 10. The marine channel will be closed during its stay.

Full, one-hour closures of the new bridge should be expected between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. on June 7 and 8. Closures will be confined to non-peak traffic times and will affect vehicles, bicycles and pedestrians.

Closures on June 9 and 10 will take place between 7 a.m. and 6 p.m. and could last for several hours at a time.

“As soon as that steel is in the air, we shut down anybody anywhere near it, just in case something goes wrong,” Huggett said.

The City of Victoria will give about one hour’s notice of closures using the media, johnsonstreetbridge.com and its @CityofVictoria Twitter account.

Huggett said the crane can operate only when winds are less than 25 kilometres an hour.

He said a few painting touchups and other minor details on the new bridge could be taken care of during one of the closures.

“We might take the opportunity on the weekend to do an extended closure so we can finish off some of the work.”

The best vantage points to view the upcoming work are Reeson Park off Wharf Street or the waterfront walkway by the Delta Ocean Point Hotel.