Tomlinson Pours Concrete Deck for Rideau River Pedestrian Bridge

The City of Ottawa’s new bridge to serve the Sandy Hill, Vanier, and Overbrook communities in Ottawa’s east end, is getting closer to being in use! After starting construction on the Rideau River Pedestrian Bridge last fall, Tomlinson’s work on the Bridge has progressed nicely, with the concrete deck poured earlier this spring. The pedestrian bridge, which includes a cycling link, will be a tremendous asset to the Sandy Hill, Vanier, and Overbrook communities in Ottawa’s east end.

With this project, the challenge was spanning 124 metres of water, shoreline to shoreline. The Tomlinson team came up with innovative ideas to ensure the concrete pour went seamlessly. Instead of pouring the decks with scree and covering them with asphalt, staff suggested pouring test labs ahead of time to check the quality of the proposed concrete mix, and to demonstrate any potential problems associated with using this mix. This meant the team was able to mitigate the projected challenges by changing the concrete mix before pouring began.

“This installation exemplifies how smoothly a project can be implemented,” said Mike McGregor, Operations Manager, Structures, Tomlinson Group. “We needed to ensure this bridge would stand the test of time and we’re proud of what we’ve accomplished. The results we see today are a testament to the innovation and hard work of the team at Tomlinson.”