Bridging the Gap

Last night I was witness to a major Ottawa project that literally bridged the gap between commuter safety and construction technology. A 12 member Dutch engineering team used German equipment to replace the first of several bridges in the highway that traverses the city. Over a 15 hour time span the Island Park Bridge, which had surpassed its use-by date, disappeared in the dark of night and a few short hours later the sun rose to shine on a new day and a new bridge. In light of the recent disastrous collapse of a bridge in Minnesota, the Island Park Bridge Replacement Project which used Rapid Replacement Technology brought comfort to many commuters. Under the watchful eye of engineers from around the world and hundreds of citizen observers:

• the bridge was severed from the it's foundation;
• a heavy duty jack topped with a huge platform (a transporter) was manoeuvred under the cut away bridge;
• the bridge was gently lifted and rolled out of the way;
  
• another transporter jacked up the new prefabricated bridge and roll it into place.
  

This modern day engineering feat brought back memories of the St. Lawrence Seaway in the late 1950's where similar methods were used to move houses. Homes were cut free from their foundations, houses were jacked up, rolled away, then set down again on a foundation in a new location.

The bridge replacement was exciting to watch but after having spent a full day in the country with friends checking out the garlic festival, the puppet festival and Scoops ice cream place in Packenham, we called it quits around 12:30 and headed home. Tired as I was I couldn't quite break away from it all. It wasn't until 4:00am that I dropped off to sleep, content in having downloaded 575 images from the days outing and watched the new bridge being lowered into place on TV.