Pattullo Bridge arch removed over Thanksgiving long weekend

Nearly 90 years after its opening, the Pattullo Bridge is coming down.

Crews have been working 24 hours a day over the Thanksgiving long weekend to remove the middle arch of the span that connected Surrey and New Westminster for decades.

On Friday, crews began taking down the Pattullo’s recognizable orange steel arch and placing it onto a barge for dismantling and recycling. By Sunday afternoon, the arch was gone from the original structure, but remained on a barge in the Fraser River.

Many residents looked on as crews continued work to complete the job, watching the old bridge slowly come down from atop the river.

The dismantling of the bridge’s arch comes about eight months after the opening of its replacement, stal̕əw̓asəm Bridge — also known as Riverview Bridge — which was built to take over for the aging span.

The Pattullo Bridge — named after Duff Pattullo, who was B.C.’s premier from 1933 to 1941 — was built in 1937 and served as the main crossing between Surrey and New Westminster for decades. Safety concerns were highlighted about 10 years ago, spurring a plan to build a new bridge that met modern safety standards, complete with wider lanes and a centre median separating traffic.

Strand jacks, which are specialized hydraulic linear winch systems, were used to lower the steel arch onto barges on the Fraser River. From there, the structure will be transported to the project site for further dismantling and then recycling.

A lot of preparation was done in advance before the arch could be removed. The concrete components were first removed to bring the weight down of the arch, with temporary bracing and beams installed on the steel arch for extra support during the lowering process.

The main navigation channel in the Fraser River was also needed for the weekend to complete the slow process.

Earlier this year, a section of the bridge that connected to McBride Avenue in New Westminster was dismantled, meaning the first two concrete beams of the bridge on the New West side are gone, creating a gap between the road and the bridge.

The Pattullo Bridge’s deconstruction isn’t expected to be complete until the end of 2027, Navjeet Tiwana, executive project director for the new bridge, told Postmedia when the deconstruction began in March.

“For the areas above water, the lowering of materials and everything, is very controlled to make sure we’re not dropping anything, unlike on the above-land areas, where that is not as much of a concern,” Tiwana said at the time.

The province decided to demolish the Pattullo Bridge as one of the final steps in the lengthy replacement project. The construction of the new bridge faced many delays and budget increases before having an initial northbound lane opening in late December, before opening all four lanes in February.

Some Metro Vancouver residents wanted to see the Pattullo Bridge be repurposed for other uses, with ideas swirling at the time for a pedestrian-only bridge. But, ultimately, the province decided to demolish it instead.