Did you know the Knight Street Bridge is no longer paved with asphalt?
The bridge connecting Vancouver and Richmond recently underwent a second phase of upgrades that wrapped up in spring.
The three-fold project included replacing the original bridge bearings, repaving its concrete deck and installing new railings to separate vehicle lanes from the sidewalk.
The star of the upgrades, according to Translink, is the new polyester polymer concrete (PPC) paving that replaced the asphalt layer.
The Knight Street Bridge is the longest bridge span in B.C. to use PPC, a compound material widely used elsewhere. It has higher skid resistance, dries quicker than asphalt and concrete and lasts longer than asphalt — up to 30 years, explained Translink's blog post.
PPC, which can only be placed in dry weather with temperatures above 5C, only takes two to four hours to cure. This means work can be completed overnight and vehicles can use the bridge within hours of paving.
These characteristics are why Translink chose to forego asphalt, the go-to material for sealing the bridge's concrete deck and patching potholes since its opening in 1973.
“Polyester polymer concrete helped us in reducing the disruption to the traffic,” explained Translink project manager Naz Nazir.
“Especially in the morning when traffic demand is huge on the bridge.”
The Knight Street Bridge is Metro Vancouver and Fraser Valley's second busiest bridge, with an average of 110,000 vehicles and 10,000 trucks crossing each day.
Nazir added PPC will be a "game-changer" for maintenance, such as pothole repairs.
“You don’t need to bring in a truck with asphalt, a paver on the deck to place it and a roller to finish the surface,” he said, adding rolling lane closures can be adopted rather than closing the length of the bridge.
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