The Government of Prince Edward Island and Strait Crossing Inc. (SCI) have reached agreement to establish a Public/Private Partnership to undertake the construction of the needed improvements to the Hillsborough River Bridge.
"SCI carries overall responsibility for the construction of the Project and for the coordination of all field activities," said Transportation and Public Works Minister, Keith Milligan. "Under the Public/Private Partnership, SCI will be designing, building and operating the Bridge and will have full control of the Project."
The Project will provide for increasing the width of the bridge structure to accommodate a total of four lanes of traffic along with associated sidewalks. Both the North and South Approach Roads will be similarly widened, the Bunbury merge lane will be reconfigured to provide for better traffic flow and the Southport Intersection will be enlarged to allow for more efficient turning movements and improved traffic flow.
All required permits to allow the Project to proceed are now in place.
"The work of the Project is now about to begin," said Mr. Milligan. " A public tender call by SCI for the first phase of the Project earthworks was issued in early July, with tenders closing July 25th. Island Coastal Services was the low bidder for the work and a contract with this firm is now in place. Additionally, an Island firm, East Prince Ports, has been awarded a subcontract by SCI for the installation of the cofferdams as required at Bridge Piers 2 and 3. Mobilization for the field work is scheduled to begin the week of August 5th, with full activity getting underway the following week."
The most visible component of the work that will be undertaken this year is the widening of the Approach Roads to the Bridge by Island Coastal Services. This work activity involves placing approximately 100,000 tonnes of local sandstone fill adjacent to the existing Approach Roads along with placement of 30,000 tonnes of armour rock needed to protect the shoreline embankments. All of these materials will be moved to the site by truck.
With the tremendous amount of traffic through the Bridge area, the construction approach is being planned with the express goal of minimizing disruption to the travelling public. An analysis of traffic flow across the Bridge has shown that approximately 75% of the vehicle movements through the Project area occur during the period of 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. Therefore, to achieve the goal of minimizing local disruption, construction activities which require restricting traffic flows across the Bridge or along the Approach Roads will be primarily undertaken during the period of 7:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m. During the very low traffic volume hours of 11:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m., wherein only 5% of the total daily Bridge traffic occurs, the Contractors will be permitted to restrict traffic to one lane, wherein traffic will be allowed to pass through the work area in alternating directions. Additionally, temporary traffic signals will be installed to control these required single lane traffic movements. At all times, special provisions will be made to allow for the rapid passage of emergency vehicles through the construction area. In establishing these traffic guidelines for the Project and in having the Contractors work through the night, it is believed that a proper and tolerable balance has been established between the construction requirements of the Project and the needs of the travelling public.
The initial work of widening the Approach Road embankments is scheduled to be complete by mid-September. The work of widening the Bridge piers and abutments will be continuing through to November with erection of the new Bridge girders occurring in the spring of 1997. The Project is scheduled to be fully complete in the summer of 1998. Once complete, Islanders will have available a very efficient and modern transportation link to accommodate the ever growing traffic demands.