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MTO Highway 21 Bayfield River Bridge Replacement

Bridge image front

  • Client

    Her Majesty the Queen in Right of Ontario as represented by the Ministry of Transportation

  • Area Office

    Bayfield

  • Year Completed

    2021

  • Size

    Three-span, 85m long x 20m wide

  • Sector

    Civil

  • Sub-Sector

    Bridges / Structures

The Story

The Bayfield River Bridge Replacement project involves the replacement and removal of the existing Bayfield River Bridge on Highway 21 in Bayfield, Ontario. The project requires Looby to build a unique steel arch bridge over the Bayfield River carrying Highway 21 traffic along the shores of Lake Huron. During construction Looby is responsible for maintaining two lanes of highway traffic through the construction site by erecting a 113-metre long Temporary Modular Bridge (“TMB”) adjacent to the existing bridge structure.

The project specifications required Looby to meet a specific milestone date of April 15, 2020 to switch traffic onto the TMB for a bonus incentive of $100,000; which Looby was able to achieve. In February 2021, Looby was able to reach another major milestone by finishing the concrete substructures and erecting the two iconic steel support arches into place.

Challenges and Solutions

Since the erection of the steel arches the project has run into a significant delay. A combination of COVID-19 delays and ordering errors from our structural steel subcontractor has postponed the delivery of the hangar assemblies which were required to complete the structural steel girder erection. The required hangers finally arrived on site in early September 2021 and the structural steel erection has since been completed. Looby is currently constructing the new concrete deck.

The delay in delivery of the structural steel hanger assemblies has push the construction schedule past the original contract completion date of July 2021 and into 2022. The project management team will continue to find ways to
accelerate the schedule as much as possible until construction is complete. Looby is currently developing several claims to extend the contract completion date. The major time sensitive right now is to switch traffic onto the new bridge deck so that the temporary modular bridge can be removed from site and taken off rent.