Lowering and Leveling a Caisson Pier Box for New Johnson Street Bridge
Customer
Location
Challenge
The existing 90-year-old Johnson Street Bridge is located at the heart of Victoria, B.C. and is in the process of being replaced with a new bridge that will serve the community for the next 100 years. The new bridge is being built adjacent to the existing bridge, allowing the important transportation connection into Victoria’s downtown to remain open during construction. The new bridge design includes a 25 meter long by 20 meter wide bascule pier box which will house the mechanical and electrical componentry for opening and closing the bridge span across the marine harbor. The 1,100 ton bascule pier box is comprised of a steel and concrete caisson which needed to be lowered upon 16 large piers with tight precision.
Solution
PCL utilized a bar lowering method to evenly lower the caisson into its final position on the piers. Enerpac provided 32 CLSG high tonnage hydraulic cylinders and 3 EVO synchronous lifting systems. All three EVO systems were networked together which enabled a single operator to control all 32 points from a master control user interface. At each pier were two independently controlled hydraulic jacks providing precision lowering of the caisson. Utilizing the Enerpac EVO system in tandem with the bar lowering method, PCL was able to improve accuracy, productivity, and efficiency thus completing the caisson lowering and leveling in 3 working days.
Products
