Flood delays work on Henday bridge
Engineers fear potential damage to concrete supports
Construction on the northeast leg of Anthony Henday Drive in Edmonton has been delayed a couple of weeks or more after river water breached the site’s berm Sunday.
The biggest concern is that concrete bridge supports on the river bottom may have been undermined, project manager Kent Peyton said.
More concrete was to be poured Monday, but some of the structure may have to be reinforced or replaced if it’s deemed unsafe.
Peyton said this could delay the in-water work schedule by a couple of weeks at best, and possibly push construction into 2015. Workers were expected to have the in-water work completed by next year.
He could not say how much it will cost to repair the flood damage.
The Anthony Henday ring road project encircles the city. It includes 27 kilometres of six- and eight-lane divided highway, nine interchanges, two road flyovers, eight rail crossings and two bridges across the North Saskatchewan River, for a total of 47 bridge structures.
Flooding “has zero impact on the project at large, but on those elements, they’re now going to take a little bit longer, and a little bit longer might be just a couple of weeks, but those couple of weeks may push into another season,” Peyton said.
The team was alerted to the anticipated flooding Thursday and deemed the height and design of their original berm to be adequate.
Further measures were taken Saturday to reinforce the berm, and workers removed equipment as a precaution.
Peyton said they measured a rise in water levels of over seven centimetres per hour on Saturday. By Sunday morning, water had flooded over the reinforced berm.
“Relative to everything that occurred in the province, we were well prepared,” Peyton said.
“We didn’t have any contaminated materials, no equipment, nothing was in there that was of detrimental value to the environment, but it set that work back a little bit.
“Now we are making efforts to address that and accelerate our schedule so we can meet the appropriate permit windows.”