Replacement of the Welland River Bridges

The Welland River Bridges in Niagara Falls, ON are located along a stretch of the QEW Highway which carries traffic from the Niagara Region to the Canada/USA border. Over the last several years, the surrounding infrastructure and bridge structure has deteriorated to the point of requiring a full-replacement. Rankin was contracted by the Ministry of Transportation to complete the design and subsequent construction of these replacement structures and roadway.

The bridge structures includes the installation of h-pile driving, foundation, retaining walls, shoring and dewatering. The new structures is located within a Provincial Significant Wetland (PSW), which required strict adherance to environmental standards and guidelines in order to ensure safety to surrounding wildlife and waterbodies. Additionally, the construction site has a CPKC Railway Spur that travels within and under the bridge structure. To facilitate sfe work conditions, Rankin complete the replacement of both bridge structures with CPKC railway flaggers on site.

To facilitate the construction of the new structures, while ensuring vehicular traffic was maintained througout, staging of the demolition and construction was installed. Within the first construction season, the Toronto Bound structure was removed and reconstructed, while crossing over traffic into a reduced lane pattern, allowing one-lane of traffic to travel on the Fort Erie bound structure. During the next construction season, the remaining structure was replaced in the opposite configuration. Lastly, during the final construction season, the tie-in structure was completed, including the roadway realignment.

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