While some folks had the opportunity to walk across the Pattullo Bridge over the weekend while it was closed, the question of what to do with the old structure recently came up at a council meeting.

The question comes as some locals recently enjoyed walking across the bridge, which saw a multi-day closure to vehicles. Pedestrians and cyclists were still able to make their way across.

During Monday, April 3’s council meeting, Transportation Investment Corporation—more commonly known as TI Corp—gave an update regarding the project. Said update was given by Wendy Itagawa, the executive director of the Pattullo Bridge replacement.

While there has been a bit of excitement around the new crossing, questions about what to do with the old crossing came up.

“I get a lot of questions from constituents on a regular basis. One is why are we not keeping the old Pattullo Bridge open for pedestrian and cycle traffic?” asked Coun. Daniel Fontaine, who was met with agreement by Itagawa.

“The key things are is that seismically, it’s not safe. It can’t be retrofitted to meet today’s codes. Also there’s scour on the foundation, so it does need to be removed,” said Itagawa, referring to the erosion of soil around a bridge’s foundation. “We are looking at how to commemorate [the bridge], so there will be more information on that. But those are the key reasons,” Itagawa replied.

Later on in that discussion, Fontaine said he was planning to bring a motion forward to discuss potentially allowing the public access to the Pattullo Bridge to say a proper goodbye to it.

“…For perhaps a weekend, where we could close it off and allow the public access. I don’t expect you to answer the question tonight, but I’m just wondering if there’s been some thought process around that, as well as providing the public access to the new bridge before it opens up, so we could say goodbye and say hello,” Fontaine said.

“We have been thinking about what we could do at that point, so looking for feedback,” Itagawa responded with a chuckle.

Coun. Ruby Campbell asked Itagawa to make sure that the TI Corp reached out to community partners to coordinate some kind of celebration.

“So that everyone can be celebratory at that completion…especially those who have kind of had to sit through some of the repair work.”

“The old bridge, is it going to be the same team doing the demolition and doing the removal of the old bridge?” asked Mayor Patrick Johnstone.

Itagawa responded with a “yes,” with the mayor adding that it would be a good idea for staff to chat with Itagawa’s team about what to do about keeping the old bridge.

“The Pattullo was, it defined our skyline for 80 years. The shape of the bridge is in graphics of everything in our city, I’d say it’s sort of a part of how we define our city, the soul of our city. Giving the city a chance to recognize that, I don’t know if there’s an opportunity for us to memorialize that, to recover some artifacts from the bridge for the archive, around the closing, saying goodbye to the old bridge, I think that would be something that would go a long way to give closure to this project,” Johnstone said.

“It’s still going to touch people when they see that bridge go.”

Following suit

When you think of the word “demolition,” perhaps you’re thinking of someone strapping explosives to the bridge and blowing it up—as if it were the climactic end of some high-octane action film.

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In reality, we can likely take our cues from the Port Mann Bridge, which went through a process called a “reverse demolition.”

A YouTube video posted by the Journal of Commerce shows how the Port Mann was dismantled piece by piece.

“Taking the bridge apart involves cutting sections of the structure off safely and with due care to both the environment and rail and river transportation,” a portion of the video by the Journal of Commerce reads.

“First steps to dismantling [the Port Mann] would be to take a look at the plan and see how it’s built,” Linda Meindersma of TI Corp told the Journal of Commerce in 2014. “And then you have to start looking at re-engineering it and look at options on how to dismantle it. Different methods were looked at, but ultimately a reverse construction method was chosen.”

With the old Port Mann, workers had to put bracing, much of it below the bridge deck, to make sure it was safe to remove. This was followed by putting temporary stay towers in place, which would support the loads of the bridge deck: the crew attaching cables to the above deck arch, as well as for the back span of the lower deck arch.

Once it was safely supported, workers began cutting the bridge into pieces, which were craned out of place.

Because the Fraser is an active river, using explosions to remove a bridge isn’t considered feasible: not only would there be environmental ramifications, blowing up the bridge would also cause problems for the various vessels transporting goods to and from shipping points.

In the meantime, Fontaine provided a notice of motion to have the mayor write to the Ministry of Transportation to figure out whether the old Pattullo could be opened to pedestrians, cyclists, and other non-vehicle-related modes of transportation over a three-day period before the new bridge opens.

He’s also requested an “on-bridge” celebration and street festival during the aforementioned three-day access period on the new bridge.

The new Pattullo crossing is slated to open in 2024.