If you've ever been curious about how a massive infrastructure gets built in the middle of the city, here's some insight.
Earlier this month a video was shared on YouTube of a pair of massive girders being slowly moved through the city to the Centennial Road overpass project at the Port of Vancouver.
The two huge beams were moved on massive trucks with pilot trucks and a police escort as they travelled from where they were cast at Con-Force Structures Ltd. in Richmond to the project near the intersection of Powell and Clark drives.
"The video shows a flatbed truck transporting a beam to the location of the new Centennial Road overpass in Vancouver, which is a part of the Centerm Expansion Project and South Shore Access Project. Construction of these projects began in July 2019 and is expected to be complete in 2022," says Ram Chungh, a spokesperson for the port, in an email to V.I.A.
The beams they're transporting for the project are up to 42.5 m long and weigh up to 80,000 kg, that's about the same weight as a smaller blue whale.
To move them they need more than your buddy Randy's Chevy.
"A single heavy haul low bed truck with a rear steering dolly and 11 axles, as well as 42 tires transported the beams. For reference, a regular flat-bed truck has 18 tires," says Chungh.
They'll be used to support the bridge deck portion of the overpass as the new infrastructure is installed.
The overpass project is part of the larger upgrade called the Centerm Expansion Project. It will increase the footprint of the container terminal by 15 per cent as and how much the terminal can handle by 60 per cent.
