End in sight for Big Lift project

Expansion only second of its kind ever performed

The bulk of the work to install four large expansion joints on the Macdonald bridge as part of the Big Lift has been done, bringing the massive project that much closer to completion.

Alison MacDonald, spokeswoman for Halifax Harbour Bridges, said on Friday that the joints at each tower and approach span now just need a little final work and some infill paving.

“Once that’s all done, it will return to being a smoother ride across the bridge,” MacDonald said. “It’s pretty smooth now, the bumps are gone for the most part. But this will smooth things out once we get the paving around the expansion joints done.”

The joints allow the suspension bridge to move to adapt to natural expansion and contraction.

MacDonald said the majority of the work for the overall project is now complete. All 46 deck segments were replaced by the end of February and a lot of other work has been done over the summer.

“The bridge is open this weekend,” MacDonald said. “It will probably be closed, at least partially, the following two (weekends). And then we’ll be done with weekend closures completely, which will make everybody very happy.”

She said overnight closures that have been happening five nights a week, Sunday nights through Thursday nights, will continue until probably sometime in November.

Workers are now continuing to wrap the bridge’s main cable in a waterproof membrane. That part of the project has been going on for the past couple of months and has been going well, she said.

“We’re going to be dehumidifying the main cable of the bridge and that will arrest any future corrosion from happening. It’s like a big old insurance policy on the bridge.”

MacDonald said along with installing the dehumidification system, workers are also putting in the pieces they need for maintenance access.

“So they’re putting things like hand rails on the towers, hand strands along the main cable, platforms at the tower, so all those things are going back (up),” she said. “They’ll be removing things, as well: the travellers that were installed to allow the workers to work, those temporary things will start coming off this fall.”

Among the other items still needing to be done, she listed installing the tower highlighting, finishing the roadway lighting, navigation lighting, completing the water main connection underneath, reconnecting the emergency phones, “and all those things that generally end up a project.”

MacDonald said it’s anticipated that some of this work will continue after the overnight closures end but it’s work that can be done while the bridge is open.