Pickering GO Station Pedestrian Bridge
Pickering, Canada
Award of Merit
Owner Metrolinx
Design Firm, Civil, Structural & MEP Engineer AECOM
Contractors APlus General Contractors Inc.; Dineen Construction
Subcontractors/Consultants Kalzip Ltd.; Flynn Canada Ltd.
Several years ago, Pickering’s burgeoning transit system required two new parking structures at one of its most active stations, including one located across from one of North America’s busiest highways, live railway tracks and a municipal road. The solution: an enclosed 820-ft-long pedestrian bridge that required strategically phased work through different seasons.
The team used one of the largest mobile cranes in Canada to transport massive bridge trusses. The bridge is skinned in a lightweight aluminum roofing product called Kalzip to protect pedestrians from the elements, and coordinating the Kalzip rolling machine and the operator’s arrival on site to coincide with steel support completion was complicated by the fact that there are few such machines and operators in the world.
At one point, work stopped—though the bridge remained safe to use—because cladding on the bridge towers didn’t comply with design specifications and quality standards. After four years of litigation, the original contractor was dismissed and Metrolinx hired Dineen to complete the project, including reworking deficient structural steel cladding support work on the bridge towers.
