Preliminary work is underway towards the eventual replacement of the Highway 813 bridge over the Athabasca River.
Alberta Transportation has selected B.C.-based company Buckland & Taylor Ltd. to lead a team of subconsultants to provide engineering services for the replacement of the current 60-year-old bridge.
“We’re contracted to have a tender ready for the end of 2014,” confirmed Dale Serink, Alberta Practice Lead for Buckland & Taylor.
However, he stressed that there is no timetable yet established for the bridge replacement.
“This is a little bit of foresight on Alberta Transportation’s part,” Serink said. “(The project) is not on their three-year construction plan, but they do want to get the engineering done.”
“We’re very much at the early stages here,” agreed Alberta Transportation spokesperson Heather Kaszuba, noting that tendering has not been officially scheduled as yet. “I can’t speculate as to a date for when construction might be.”
The engineering involved, Serink said, is no simple task.
“It takes years,” he described. “We’ve got to gather lots of environmental information, geotechnical information … there’s a lot of process that’s involved before you can go to tender, and that’s what we’re managing.”
Part of the engineering process, he added, is determining the location of a new bridge. Whether or not it will parallel the existing structure is still undetermined, he noted.
“We don’t know for sure. That would be part of our assignment, is to confirm the location,” Serink said. “It’s gathering all the information (and) making decisions on where to locate the bridge.”
Kaszuba noted that the planning and design process includes opportunities for public feedback through open houses and other methods.
“Through this process, we’re going to be looking for input and public consultation,” she said.
That would include public discussion on placement of the bridge, which may also involve community discussions regarding a potential truck bypass route around Athabasca.
“That would certainly be some of the feedback we’d be looking to gather,” Kaszuba said.
