Redwood Bridge – Rehabilitative Maintenance and Related Works

The Redwood Bridge is the oldest remaining as-constructed bridge in the City of Winnipeg. Originally built in 1908 for streetcars and wagon traffic, it provided a vital link between two distinct communities and continues to do so this day, as demonstrated by the approximately 25,000 vehicles that use the bridge on a daily basis. Rehabilitating this historic structure ensures it is able to provide service well into the future, supports the social and economic development of the communities on both sides of the river and provides an important transportation link to the City of Winnipeg. As expected for a structure that is nearly 100 years old, the bridge was showing its age. The foundations had shifted and the steel beams and trusses that carried the loads had deteriorated, partly due to corrosion from the road salt necessary for safe winter driving. Rehabilitating the bridge at this time prevented further deterioration and avoided much more costly work and lengthy unscheduled closures in the future. This paper describes all the rehabilitative maintenance work, including concrete pier jacketing, pier cap reconstruction, replacement of bearings, deteriorated structural steel components, sidewalks and corrosion protection of steel through trusses by applying zinc metallizing to all steel surfaces. The General Contractor for this project was MD Steele Construction Limited based in Winnipeg. The total cost of the rehabilitative maintenance and related work of this project was $9.6M.