in for this year, which they hope will fund the replacement and rehabilitation of a 98-year-old bridge in the county. Of the two current bridge projects, one is a bridge replacement and the other is a bridge size culvert. For the latter project, the County of Northern Lights is lining an existing bridge sized culvert with a smooth wall steel pipe, roughly two-anda-half metres in diameter. Instead of ripping out the existing culvert, the plan is to “slide a new one in,” and then do some earthworks on either side to expand it. For the former project, the replacement bridge is a prefabricated structure by Rapid-Span – which is one one of Canada’s largest manufacturers of steel and precast components for the transportation industry, and in particular bridge construction. The county chose to go the prefabrication route for the first time after an internal discussion and put out requests for quotes to several companies with the capabilities to take on the job, and RapidSpan was the successful candidate. “We decided that it’s a lot easier for us to go in that direction, because when you do these prefabricated structures it reduces your construction time and your road closure time by months,” Charles explains. In the case of this bridge, the finished structure is already complete and just waiting to be installed. The installation will involve drilling the pilings, ripping the old bridge out, then “dropping the new one on top,” Charles says. “When we go to install this one, it’s going to be APRIL 2025
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