Strathcona County Footbridge

The Strathcona County Footbridge connects Edmonton and Strathcona County, linking to the trail systems in the North Saskatchewan River Valley. The 228m bridge has a span arrangement of 69m-89m-69m and provides a 4.5m clear multi-user pathway. The horizontal alignment of the bridge follows a symmetrical S-curve. The structural system is a single-cell trapezoidal steel box girder with a composite concrete deck. The girder is continuous and has a constant depth.

Steel Erected: Approximately 500 MT of steel was erected.

Erection Methodology: The general contractor constructed temporary berms extending from the abutments to about 7m past the piers. The side span segments were erected from the ground. The key challenge was erecting the main span segments across the river. Delivery of segments S1-S5 was from the west berm, and segments S6-S8 from the east berm.

The 25m west pier segment, Segment S2, weighing 63MT, was erected first using an ATF 400G crane. A temporary tower located to the west of the pier provided stability to the segment. Then, the 29.5m Segment S1, weighing 55MT, was erected with its east end air-spliced to the pier segment and the west end supported on a second temporary tower. Finally, the 30m long abutment segment, S1, weighing 56.5MT, was erected through a tandem lift using ATF 400G and AC300 cranes. The east end of S1 was air spliced to the west end of S2.

The critical stage involved a crane-assisted launch of the 130-tonne, 59m long spliced segment (S4 + S5) across the main river span and air splicing it to the pier segments using a three-crane operation. Once launched into position, the lifting of the S4+S5 segment was through a timed lift using cranes LTM 1500 positioned on the west berm and LR 1400 on the east berm. The 25m east pier segment, S6, weighing 63MT, was lifted simultaneously with an ATF 400G crane and air spliced prior to setting the load on the pier. The remaining east segments were erected by ATF 400G. For more details on the main-span erection methodology, see the article: Erection of the Strathcona County Footbridge