Man i been doing that since the beginning ;)

I can't do it if I wanted to. I don't cross at the right time. Too early in the morning.

I was always wondering how they're going to take down the main span of the old bridge. Taking it apart piece by piece would be very difficult and dropping it into the water with explosives risky as it's so close to the new bridge.

Driving by today I spotted something interesting. They have attached plates to the top of the main span arch with mounts for a shackle/ pin. I think they're going to lift the while damn span off in one go, maybe using one of those huge barge cranes. Unless anyone else knows (or can think of) why they have attached what appear to be lifting points.
Posted via RS Mobile

Take this with a grain of salt since I don't know how much truth there is in this rumour, but I heard that there's actually train or sky train tracks built onto the Port Mann bridge and they just haven't told the public about it yet. Would be interesting to see. Wonder if its possibly built onto new bridge? Or maybe keeping the old bridge? Or is that confirmed that it will be removed?

Saw some unknown boards or tracks or something on the old Port Mann bridge, if you look at the old bridge going down Johnson Hill westbound.
Posted via RS Mobile

No way its true, would make too much sense to run skytrain/westcoast express ground level down highway 1 median. They need an excuse to tear everything up in a few years when it could have been done for pennies on the dollar the first time around.

On the new one? They put the structure in place for it to have transit on the bridge if its ever needed in the future.

I personally can't see putting a train down the middle of the #1 myself, so it seems to me to be something to shut people up about lack of planning and such.

It makes sense to have cars on the highway, not trains.

The approach span on the Coquitlam side is already gone, and the Surrey side is being disassembled now. There are two more lanes of the new bridge that will overlap the approaches on the old bridge, so it HAS to come down.

Well they may not run the Skytrain tracks all down the highway, but it may veer onto the highway right before the new Port Mann in order to avoid having to build yet another bridge crossing. That said, I thought the infrastructure put in place was for light rail, not a Skytrain system.

LOL

The old bridge is in a serious state of dis-repair. They did not spend a billion on a new bridge only to repair the old one for a skytrain system.

As others stated that old bridge has to come down for the new one to reach its full potential.

What we need to talk about here is how the highway is a complete cluster fuck. If I get one more rock kicked up into my windshield and front bumper I am going to freak out. Those huge asphalt grooves they leave unfinished are an absolute nightmare.

You do realize the highway is still a construction zone, right? It's a waste of time, money, and man power to run a street sweeper every night to clear every last piece of rock off the road. Find a different route if you don't want to risk rock chips.

SERIOUSLY? new like this should not be reported. WTF!!
Like what benefit does it give the public?

I've been doing this since the bridge opened, but now I will stop. Thanks retards!

Kiewit is liable for damages and what not caused by excessive debris on the road from the construction like mis-pours into dump trucks etc. thats why you rarely see it because the degree that they clean up is pretty good

also of course any bridge like the new span is available for an upgrade in the future to support transit or additional volume. In taking apart the old span as far as i can tell they will probably just take it apart as they built the new span in seperate sections since they have that huge box crane on the coquitlam side of the old span now

As far as i'm concerned the highway project is a complete success even before total completion. Unless you travel the highway everyday and have been before the construction began then you probably dont have an accurate picture when you hop on the new highway and run into random lane closures etc and think "WTFFFF New Highway fail" its pretty amazing how well the traffic flows now. Consistently from the 156th on-ramp i can get to Canada Way/Willingdon in under 20 minutes and to Hastings/Renfrew in under 25, Way better.

They're currently pouring the supports for the two final lanes on the Coquitlam side, now that the old approach is gone on that end... once those are done they can continue assembling the deck.

Yup. I can't speak about the highway any further east than Coquitlam but it's amazingly quick getting from Langley out to Coquitlam during rush hour now. It's almost like there's no rush hour anymore come 8am. Some of the new intersections are a little questionable but I feel overall it's already a great success.

http://stepsandleaps.files.wordpress...at_success.jpg

My only complaint because I know its still a construction zone is how they do the transitions from old road to new asphalt..

Some sections are a nice smooth transition, but at Westbound just after Grandview Hwy overpass they legit just cut the line with a 2x4 and I SLAM my wheels into it every fucking time. I even slow down to 60 and cause a fucking backup to try and not hit it as hard.

If I get a bent wheel.. I'll freak. :fuuuuu:

Love it. I go to Coquitlam from Langley, quite regularly. Being able to get from my house to my parents' place in 20 min, at peak rush hour, is a fucking dream.

A couple of weeks ago, maybe even last week, there was a pretty bad accident on Hwy 1 eastbound early in the morning. I left early to avoid traffic, but it didn't matter. It was somewhere along the Bunaby Lake to Coquitlam stretch. Car on the HOV lane spun 180 degrees. Traffic was a crawl. As I drove by, I noticed a lot of rocks about the size of twoonies on the road. I guess the road wasn't cleaned up properly after overnight construction. Good thing I was going that slow, because at high speeds, it would have been hard to see. Driver must have hit the rocks and lost control.

The amount of dings and rock chip damage done to my car over the entire duration of construction is unbelievable. All part of the price we pay for progress, I guess. I need a level 10 force field around my car.

Of course, you don't know if those rocks are construction debris, either, or if they came from somewhere else... say, pickup loaded with gravel hit a bump and dumped crush all over the road.

I mean, if they were there all morning, and they were THAT hazardous, you'd think there'd be a lot more than just this one car spun out on them...

^not all people react the same way. Perhaps this driver plain freaked out. I've seen people freak out over less. If it were me, I'd dodge them all and keep it under control...... I'm that good, LOL.

Leave it to RS to fail me for pointing out what everyone else would appreciate. There have been countless highway projects like this previously and there have never been retarded deviations in surfaces like this. I drive the 97 & 97C corridors 50+ times a year, and I drove through the systematic repaving of almost 80% of the 97C highway, and never had any problems like the ones I see the #1.

Kiewit made a lot of mistakes on this project, the repaving of the entire length of highway is the single largest budget impact aside from that massive accident they had with the piece of the bridge that fell down (also related directly to Kiewit's poor management, I have more information that is not publicly avaliable on why that accident happened).

I dont know why I even bother coming back since I'll just get more fails.

I live in the Interior, right off of 97b actually, so I know what you mean. I drive through the post-winter road repairs all the time, as well as all the widening they've been doing over the past few years. I think the main difference between these repairs and the Hwy1 project is up here that they can shut down half the road all day and not worry about traffic backing up too much, whereas on Hwy1 it because a gigantic clusterfuck if they work during the daytime, so they relegate most of the actual road work to night time. They may not have the time in order to properly clean up. I also had the front of my car completely chipped from a dump truck heading to one of the Hwy1 project sites when it hit a bump and dumped a shit ton of gravel over the bucket edge. It's very possible a lot of the debris on the road are caused by similar situations as that.

I just wish they would make the transition from newly laid asphalt to old pavement a little smoother and not a sudden drop. On some parts of the road they've worked on, it is very smooth while in other parts, it's not.

This is nothing like most other highway projects. This isn't a simple re-paving - they have to widen the road, a piece at a time, in some places adding overpasses, new ramps, water passages, and in general completely re-aligning most of the road, all while maintaining three working lanes each direction 15 hours of the day.

In most cases, this widening means creating new TEMPORARY lanes, shifting all the traffic over to it, ripping up old lanes, re-laying those, shifting PART of the traffic back over, re-doing the remaining old potions, THEN finally paving the whole lot as one smooth piece. Some areas, they've had to do the expansion of each direction separately because the lanes are at different levels. Some areas have required whole new overpasses to accommodate the width.

The new Cape Horn interchange alone has been a MASSIVE project of simultaneously re-aligning and inter-connecting three major routes, AND re-aligning operating rail lines in the process.

The logistics of the roadbuilding itself go beyond MOST other projects, and are further complicated by the need to KEEP THE TRAFFIC MOVING BETWEEN 5AM and 8PM EVERY DAY.

I don't know why either, since you clearly are unable to see anything beyond your own car's bumper. Your statement, "there have been countless highway projects like this..." makes it obvious you have no understanding or appreciation of the sheer scope of the PMH1 project.

But by all means, do keep coming back, my FAIL button needs a good workout.

(And no, I don't work for Kiewit, the Province, or anyone else even remotely involved in this project... I'm just a tradesman who has to drive all over the Lower Mainland on a daily basis, has watched all this come together over the last three years or so, and greatly appreciates the improvements already seen, and those yet to come, all of which make my travel easier and less stressful, and my work day shorter.)

^^ I didn't know it was so hard to make a smooth transition. Considering all they'd have to do is thin out the asphalt at the end where the new asphalt ends. This requires 1 guy, with a rake, and then the roller goes over it.

:fulloffuck: Seems SOOOOOO hard.

They've done it at:
Westbound just after Kensington.
Westbound just after 1st ave
Westbound just before Cassiar Tunnel
Eastbound just after Ironworkers Bridge
Eastbound just after Cassiar Tunnel
Eastbound just after Willingdon

They do it in LOTS of places. Then the other times they just say "Fuck it I'm lazy, lets just get this done and lets get the fuck out of here."

Shitty transitions at:
Drop off just before Willingdon Westbound
Just after Grandview Hwy Overpass Westbound
Eastbound just before Kensington
Eastbound just before Gaglardi

The "lets get it done and get out of here" mentality may come from the fact that they are not going to close MAJOR arteries for the morning commute? :/

You think adding that HOV off-ramp before gaglardi is as simple as a guy with a rake? Lol
Posted via RS Mobile