Thursday, December 3, 2015

Replacing The Bridge Over One Weekend

The 417 is one of two freeways in Ottawa (along with the 416). It travels west to east through the city. On occasion an overpass bridge for the freeway needs replacing. The technique here in recent years has been to build the replacement section, or sections, near where the overpass is, and then in one weekend, cut out the old overpass and move the replacement into place. This minimizes the amount of time the freeway has to be closed in the given area around the worksite. In late October, it was done here at the Kent Street overpass. The freeway was shut down for a stretch to either side, with detour routes set up. The work took the entire weekend, but it was done in time. For some reason this has become something to watch, so bleachers were actually set up on the south side of the worksite, and a webcast was set up as well. Most of these shots from that weekend are from the south side of the project, with the exception of one. Needless to say, most of the people watching this go on were guys. I stopped by several times during that weekend and photographed things.

36 comments:

  1. There are very good connections in Ottawa, crosses fast right?.

    Tomás

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  2. Actually, that must be quite something to watch. It's certainly a very neat engineering achievement.

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  3. I is always nice to watch something that big and how they manage to do the job.

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  4. Nice shots, William, as you know since the first half of 2015, I like to watch this kind of big construction works.

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  5. That's what we need here as the "authorities" are finally getting around to replacing some of our bridges in the area.

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  6. i am always amazed by the folks that do this kind of work, i can not imagine the back ache after the work. strong hard working folks. men & ladies too. ( :

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  7. Definitely documenting an important improvement to the infrastructure to your city. Worth the inconvenience!

    Janis
    GDP

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  8. That's an amazing operation! I guess if they're smart enough to build the bridge right in the first place they can make it easy to replace.

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  9. @Tomas: well, at seven thirty in the morning and four thirty in the afternoon it can slow down!

    @Mike: it's an idea that works, so they might as well run with it.

    @Marianne: these pieces were big. They're still working below and around the site, but this way they don't have to close so much as a lane on the freeway itself.

    @Jan: it's a different kind of photo subject than my usual work.

    @Revrunner: infrastructure has to be looked after, and sometimes replaced.

    @Beth: it wouldn't have been my ideal line of work, but it's something vital to keep our society running.

    @Linda: a whole lot.

    @Janis: I thought photographing the concept was a good idea.

    @Red: that's true.

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  10. Only one weekend? Wow. Takes a lot longer here.....

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  11. It appears that your city fathers/mothers have things in hand...and that would be interesting to watch. Not easy to move and fit such massive structures!

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  12. I can't believe they set up bleachers for people to watch. Amazing.

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  13. That something new that we can use here too...

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  14. Just amazing what the workers can do in such a short time.
    MB

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  15. @Pat: well the work takes place over a good period of time in terms of building the replacement and the aftermath, but not interfering with traffic except for a weekend makes this method worthwhile.

    @Lowell: it takes great effort.

    @Sharon: they've learned that after the interest from the public in previous projects.

    @VP: I think it's a good working concept.

    @MB: it is. For that weekend, they were really on a tight schedule.

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  16. We've got road construction going on in our neighborhood that seems to have been in progress for months now. I keep wondering when they'll ever finish!

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  17. it's amazing what they can do these days.

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  18. Looks like this may be a long project.

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  19. That's amazing a weekend! Can we have the crew when they have a moment there's a bridge a few miles from here that is going to take two years...

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  20. @Karl: when they have to be! The work itself does extend over several months, and is still going on as of now. I'm sure they'll have to do some stuff in the spring in terms of restoration of the area where they did the building of the overpass itself.

    @Norma: other projects here, like an infrastructure overhaul over in Old Ottawa East, can take two years.

    @Tex: it does strike me as a good system, as long as you have the room to build the replacement.

    @Halcyon: all in all, several months from when they started prepping the build site to where we are now, with them finishing up some detail work.

    @Geoff: unfortunately our construction crews are never short of things to do!

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  21. It is amazing that they can do that! If you're referring to the Fallen Firefighters Memorial, feel free to mention William. We've chosen to be quite public about his death, and there have been 3 memorial services, including one in Alberta where he's remembered at the provincial memorial for fallen firefighters. Here's a link to my original post when it happened: http://seasonsinthevalley.blogspot.ca/2015/05/william-1977-2015.html and here's the link to my post on the service in Alberta: http://seasonsinthevalley.blogspot.ca/2015/10/remembering-will.html
    Cheers, The Furry Gnome

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  22. What a good idea! I would love to watch something like that.

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  23. It's fascinating to watch something involving transportation and government progress so rapidly.

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  24. The thing that I can never understand is that it takes years to build something like this initially, but they can do a major repair in one weekend.

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  25. Oh my ! that's a lot of work in one week-end !

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  26. Construction is a real spectator sport, especially when there's a lot of technical work going on. It's pretty amazing how they manage to do something on this scale with minimal disruption.

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  27. Great piece of recording, Watch this William its a move they did near me in the UK https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPDE8NjjC8k
    Unlike you I never had the chance to see any of it happening

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  28. I love reconstruction! People employed to do good, honest work!

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  29. I think I would find this pretty fascinating to watch also William, amazing that such a big project can be achieved so quickly.

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  30. I love the technique for replacing overpasses there! If only they did it that quickly here.

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  31. Blush, I hate to admit that I'm not too interested in this kind of thing!

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  32. Miss the rabbits in my backyard. Haven't seen hide nor "hare" of them since a fox visited.

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  33. @FG: thank you.

    @Lois: it drew attention!

    @Mari: I quite agree.

    @Jack: it takes a lot of planning.

    @Dianne: it was!

    @Kay: it went smoothly.

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  34. @Bill: thanks!

    @Jennifer: Indeed!

    @Grace: fortunately nothing went wrong.

    @EG: it's something of a science.

    @Ciel: it was different!

    @Revrunner: uh oh!

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