Bridge over Groat Road causes sleepless nights for city staff

Four buckled bridge girders that will keep Groat Road closed for the next three weeks are causing headaches for commuters and sleepless nights for city staff.

The massive steel girders have been the focus of humour and high dudgeon on every medium from Twitter to talk radio.

On Tuesday, city councillors got their first chance to grill staff about traffic snarls and parking problems and whats being done to get commuters to and from work.

After the meeting, the citys branch manager of road design and construction fell on his sword in front of the whole city.

Its the most pressure ... and we should have the pressure on us, Barry Belcourt told reporters. Its our responsibility. Its my responsibility to deliver this project. Do you think we sleep at night? No! The team Im working with, and the contractors, were embarrassed by this.

Earlier, in council chambers, elected officials took turns asking questions about what went wrong and whats being done about to make it right.

I think, even though we dont know fault, we as a council need to humbly and sincerely apologize to Edmontonians that all of this has happened, said Coun. Scott McKeen.

At the centre of all the fuss are six steel girders, including four that bent sometime between 2 a.m. and 2:15 on Monday morning. Time-lapse photos of the worksite, taken every 15 minutes, show the girders buckling.

'Never had a failure of this magnitude'

In my 39 years with City of Edmonton construction projects, we have never had a failure of this magnitude, ever, Belcourt said.

Referring to those now infamous photos, Coun. Tony Caterina had this exchange with city staff.

From the picture, I can see that the first two are braced the full length, Caternia said. I can see from the picture that the four that are bent are not braced the full length. So, as a layman, in this industry, I would say, how does a third, fourth and fifth piece go up without bracing to the previous one?

City staff refused to speculate and said answers to such questions will have to wait for an investigation that could take months to complete.

For now, city staff say the focus is on safety at the work site, on studying the bent girders to see if theyre usable or not, and on getting Groat Road open again.

Dorian Wandzura, the citys general manager of transportation, told council the investigation will look at four aspects of the bridge: design, the quality of the steel, the installation work done over the weekend, and environmental factors that may have played a role.

Later, Belcourt talked to reporters about the high winds that shut down the work for 12 critical hours late Saturday and early Sunday morning.

Anybody who was here in Edmonton on Saturday night, the wind was extreme, and the wind was also in a valley, he said. So, do I know that exact kilometres per hour? But it far exceeded the 15 km/h that was part of our criteria.

Belcourt said whenever the wind was above 15 km/h, all work on the bridge stopped.

On Tuesday morning, crews began assembling the massive crane that will hold all the girders in place while experts check to see whether the four bent ones can be repaired or must be replaced, Belcourt said.

If any of those girders are damaged, we will not be using them to go forward, he said. And if any of those girders again cannot be used, it means probably a six-month time-frame to build new girders.

Project could be delayed up to a year

If that happens, the city would lose an entire construction season and the project would be delayed by up to a year, pushing back the bridge opening from October 2015 to October 2016.

Councillors repeatedly asked city staff the questions on thousands of commuters minds: Whats being done in the short-term to get traffic from the citys west end flowing again.

Its a lack of productivity for tens of thousands, if not more people, said Coun. Michael Oshry. Weve got to be doing something about it.

Staff said the city will continue with parking bans on 109th, 116th and 124th street during peak rush hours and will adjust traffic signals to improve vehicle flow.

Allison MacLean, owner of Carbon Environmental Boutique on 102nd Avenue, said businesses near her shop are losing from five to 30 per cent of their sales because the bridge is closed.

Its going to be difficult for us, she said. Without that traffic flowing by, were actually in a bit of a hidden cul-de-sac now, so a little bit invisible, which is the opposite of what we were hoping for.

Belcourt said the girders themselves were produced by a local steel company and were certified to meet rigorous national standards. The steel was X-rayed to determine that it was the proper thickness and strength. Even the welds on the girders were X-rayed.

The citys contract with the principal contractor, Graham Infrastructure, has built-in penalties in place, Belcourt said. For every day Groat Road has four lanes closed, the company has to pay the city a $15,000 rental fee, he said.