From the Editor

UNIQUE APPROACHES TO INFRASTRUCTURE WORK KEEP PUBLIC AND BUSINESSES IN MIND

Iam endlessly intrigued by the ways in which major infrastructure projects are completed in large cities, especially when there’s potential for major public impact.

Vancouver’s advanced light rapid transit system, better known as Skytrain, has steadily expanded since its launch in 1986, and it’s on the move again today. The current part of the project is being built through some of the most densely populated and travelled portions of the city, and that has resulted in some unique approaches to construction.

Skytrain started with a single line, the Expo Line, from downtown across the Fraser River to Surrey and was mostly built on elevated guideways following the route of historical streetcar and commuter rail lines cutting through key parts of the city, with a tunnel under the downtown core. After that, the Millennium Line was built, entirely at grade or above. The Evergreen Extension of the Millennium Line, which opened in 2016, takes that further with a deep tunnel under Burnaby Mountain.

Stretching south, the Canada Line was the last major construction in a heavily populated area, in preparation for the 2010 Winter Olympics. It also used a long stretch of cutand-cover tunnel construction along the busy Cambie Street corridor. Work went long, many businesses closed and others lost money, and the lawsuits continue even today.

The Broadway extension, which adds 5.7 km of line and six stations to the Millennium Line, will run under Broadway, one of the busiest arteries in Vancouver. Work is centred around bored tunnels, rather than cut-and-cover, to lessen the impact on the vast number of businesses along Broadway and nearby.

Two tunnel boring machines, built by Herrenknecht, have arrived in Vancouver from Germany; the six-m-wide TBMs will be launched this summer with tunnelling expected to take about a year. In the meantime, station construction is underway, bringing challenges to avoid traffic disaster.

Broadway provides a key route into the downtown core.

It’s busy, and any slowdowns cause traffic snarls north–south into downtown as well as east–west. Construction could cause major problems. So, the contractors – a joint venture between

Acciona and Ghella – put traffic first.

At the key stations which could impact traffic, piles were installed as unobtrusively as possible, and once in place have

Work is centred around bored tunnels, rather than cut-andcover, to lessen the impact on the vast number of businesses along Broadway and nearby.

provided the base for a traffic deck that will carry vehicles during station construction. The result will be minimal impact on traffic flow, while allowing crews to build the stations underneath those decks – reducing impact on the businesses nearby.

This is a great approach that is allowing for a major infrastructure project to move forward at full speed while ensuring that the public is able to go about its business as close to normal as possible, and protects the needs of businesses in the area.

Subway projects can be difficult to complete successfully with minimal impact – the Canada Line challenges and the lingering Eglinton Crosstown construction in Toronto are examples of that. Using some unique approaches to keep community concerns at front of mind, as the Broadway extension has done, is a good step for large infrastructure projects to consider.

Lee Toop

Editor

ltoop@baumpub.com heavyequipmentguide.ca