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The Voice of North and West Vancouver since 1969 FREE

Deck work will now finish next year

Katharine Hamer
News Reporter Ahamer@nsneizrs.com

IT’S been eight months since the original start date for

Lions Gate Bridge closures.
Bridge construction work was meant to kick off back in January and
involve 40 nights of bridge closures over a pine month period, leading up
to a fall completion date.
Work on the bridge was then delayed unti) Mav — but technical hitch-
es stopped weekend summer closur
Night-ume closures for Stanley Park
causeway widening and repaving have
continued throughout the summer,
with attendant sidewalk cosures and
causeway detours. But no one in the
Lions Gate Project Office now knows
when bridge deck replacement” work
will, begin —or how many additional
closures it will entail.
What they do know is that there will
be times during the revised schedule
where work will need to stop complete-
ly: during the months of November and
December, in particular, high winds
could wreak haves oon tthe
lower-and-lift proc
Over the summer there were prob-
lems with the design of the continuity
link, which holds the old and new deck ENGINEER Darryt
sections together during the lower-and Matson: confident in
lift process. Lions Gate Project Office bridge project
spokeswoman Pam Ryan said those
have now been solved, and that there are no other technical difficulties 10
deal with. However, the project office is still waiting to ¢ confirma:
tion of a new schedule from contractors American Bridge-Surespan.
The delay, according to project engineer Darryl Matson of Buckland
and Taylor, comes largely from the intensity of the review process. Design
specifications have to be examined by three separate groups of engin
including one in New York City, and agreed upon before work can begin.
Computer models of deck and hanger sections — over 800 of them —
have to be checked and analyzed. F
Matson said there had been some “philosophical differences” among, : a : : ae Renee : aac men, penta
the review panels, rather than any major concerns. “It's just like any group NEWS photo Paul McGrath
of people around a table,” he said. “We're not going to agree on every H |
thing.” ; omeiess

The project was originally budgeted at $70 million, but that figure is
DEBBIE Drover (right) and her daughter Samantha outside the remains of their Carisbrooke home

¢ Contractors page 13 that was destroyed by fire iast week. They hope readers can help them stay in the area. See page 14.

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