New Pattullo Bridge opening pushed to Fall 2025

Construction progress on the new Pattullo Bridge, as of May 2024. (Government of BC)

There is now some real visual progress on the project to build a new replacement crossing for the Pattullo Bridge between New Westminster and Surrey.

Work just recently reached completion on the final segments of the cable-stayed bridge’s main tower, now rising 167 metres high above the Fraser River — taller than the towers of the Port Mann Bridge.

Earlier this spring, the first segment of the bridge deck was installed. And just earlier this month, the first suspension cables went in to support the first bridge deck segment.

But based on the significant amount of work yet to be completed on the main span of the bridge, the approaches, and the improvements to the existing road networks on both sides of the river, the targeted completion and opening of the crossing in half a year from now by the end of 2024 has become increasingly extremely unlikely.

This was confirmed by the Government of British Columbia today, as the new replacement Pattullo Bridge is now slated to open in Fall 2025. As well, the new Broadway Subway — the extension of SkyTrain Millennium Line to Arbutus in Vancouver — will now open in Fall 2027 instead of early 2026.

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When major construction work first began in Spring 2021, the targeted opening date was late 2023. Shortly after, in Spring 2022, this opening date was moved to 2024.

new pattullo bridge construction may 2024

Construction progress on the new Pattullo Bridge, as of May 2024. (Government of BC)

According to the provincial government, as the project began construction amidst the pandemic, it was particularly impacted by supply chain delays for special components from manufacturing hubs including China, France, Italy, India, Indonesia, and Spain. After the pandemic, there were continued supply chain impacts on the fabrication of bridge components, particularly structural steel shipments from China.

As well, construction within the river took longer than expected, adding to the supply chain delays.

“This is actually a very narrow point in the river, so the hydraulics and the location are quite complicated with the fast-moving water,” Wendy Itagawa, the provincial government’s executive director for the Pattullo Bridge Replacement Project, told Daily Hive Urbanized in an interview.

“So through design, we really had to make sure that we assessed the hydraulic performance of the new bridge and to make sure that we didn’t impact downstream structures of the CN railway bridge and the existing Pattullo Bridge.”

Construction progress on the new Pattullo Bridge, as of May 2024. (Government of BC)

The contractor, working with the project office, also had to abide by provincial and federal regulations and permitting processes relating to environmental considerations, especially to reduce the impacts on fish movements. Itagawa says these considerations dictated when exactly crews could work within the river, along with coming up with mitigation strategies, such as creating “bubble curtains” for the fish.

This especially relates to installing 27 piles, each 2.5 metres in diameter, for the foundations of the main in-river tower.

With the “starter” segment of the bridge deck now installed, she says, they will now begin the balanced cantilevered construction progress of gradually branching out the cable-stayed bridge deck, which will span 530 metres directly over the river and be supported by 80 cables. This centre span of the bridge deck is expected to reach completion in early 2025.

Meanwhile, work will continue on completing the on-land bridge structures on both sides of the river that will link up with the cable-stay bridge span, as well as the approaches, including the major upgrades to the existing road networks. There will be temporary vehicle traffic pattern changes, including a forthcoming six-month closure of Front Street to finish the steel erection on the New Westminster side.

In Fall 2025, immediately after the new bridge opens, work will begin on decommissioning and demolishing the adjacent existing 1937-built bridge. Itagawa says it will take about one year to take down the old seismically deficient bridge.

A previous TransLink analysis deemed that the existing bridge would have to be decommissioned by no later than 2024, given its rate of deterioration. When asked about the risks of retaining the bridge for operations for another year, Itagawa told Daily Hive Urbanized that TransLink has “a robust program in place to have regular inspections and maintenance.”

“It’s a critical link, obviously, between New Westminster and Surrey, and it continues to be safe to use, and we’re building this bridge to have it open as soon as possible.”

In 2020, even though the existing bridge would have a remaining lifespan of less than half a decade, TransLink made the short-term investment to install an advanced seismic and high wind warning system, including an automatic emergency bridge closure system with falling barriers on both the New Westminster and Surrey ends of the bridge deck to prevent further vehicles from entering during any event that posed an imminent threat to public safety.

Construction progress on the new Pattullo Bridge, as of May 2024. (Government of BC)

The existing four-lane bridge is also vulnerable to structural failure from ship collisions. Following the recent Baltimore bridge collapse, there has been greater awareness of optimal bridge design to reduce the risk of such catastrophic incidents.

However, Itagawa says the new bridge is designed to the latest highest standards, including considerations for ship impacts.

This includes the new bridge’s design of having just two in-river piers, as opposed to the existing bridge’s six in-river piers.

“We’ve worked that out with the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority on the largest ships that would be travelling up the Fraser River, so the bridge is designed for ship impact and for clearance. The navigational clearance under the bridge also accommodates the largest potential marine vessel that could be accommodated in the future,” she noted.

Also, the new Pattullo Bridge’s cables will not be suspended over the traffic lanes, which is a lesson learnt from the Port Mann Bridge’s challenges with falling ice and snow “bombs.”

With the longer construction timeline, Itagawa acknowledges there are now some cost pressures for the project.

The project’s contractor is a consortium formed by Acciona and Aecon. Acciona is also building the Broadway Subway.

The fixed-price contract to the consortium is worth $968 million out of the project’s total budget of $1.377 billion, with the remainder being government-related costs such as previous early planning work, studies, geotechnical analysis, and the current project management oversight.

Upon completion, the 77,000 vehicles that typically use the existing bridge will be transplanted onto the new bridge, which will feature four wider vehicle lanes compared to the existing crossing, a new free-flowing off-ramp between the new bridge’s southbound direction and Highway 17’s (South Fraser Perimeter Road) westbound direction, and pedestrian and cyclist pathways. The new bridge will largely reuse the existing interchanges in New Westminster and Surrey, with some major upgrades.

Artistic rendering of the final 2020 design for the new Pattullo Bridge. (Government of BC)

Artistic rendering of the improvements to the existing New Westminster interchange for the new Pattullo Bridge. (Government of BC)

Artistic rendering of the improvements to the existing Surrey interchange for the new Pattullo Bridge. (Government of BC)

The existing Pattullo Bridge. (Shutterstock)

Deck of the existing Pattullo Bridge looking north towards New Westminster. (Google Maps)

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