Queensway ramps to be replaced at record speed

Two elevated ramps on Ottawa's Queensway will be replaced in a rapid construction phase this weekend.

The ramps at Island Park Drive, one eastbound and one westbound, will be replaced Saturday night.

"It's a first for us here in Ontario, and in Canada, to replace a bridge in this short period of time," Ken Polson, overseeing the project for the Ontario Ministry of Transportation, told CBC News on Thursday. "I've been in this business for almost25 years and it's the first time I've ever seen it, and I'm already looking forward to it."

Hesaidthe crews are expecting big crowds near the project on Saturday night. Several media outlets will be covering the replacement and there will be a grandstand set up nearby for 100 people. As well, people outside the Ottawa area will be able to watch the bridge removal via webcam.

The Queensway will be closed at 8 p.m. ET. Heavy lift transporters willremove the two bridges, which weigh 650 tonnes each, to a holding yard just north of the Queensway. After the old bridges are removed, transporters will bring prefabricated bridges to the site for installation.

While total construction will take about 15 hours, some lanes on the Queensway should be reopened by 9 p.m.,he said.

"A lot of planning and engineering has gone into it," Polson said. Crewshave donepreliminary work, including pre-cutting the bridges and building temporary supports over three weekends in the last month.

Replacing the bridges conventionally would haverequired reducingthe Queensway to two lanes in each direction for two summers, Polson said.

"We would have caused a lot of congestion," he explained. "So, basically, what we're doing, the congestion we would have caused over two years we're limiting to 15 hours."

This technique for moving bridgeshas been previously used in the United States and Europe.