'You wouldn't say this bridge is showing its age at all': Confederation Bridge in good shape
On its 20th birthday, Confederation Bridge almost as good as new, say inspectors
It may seem a little odd to even wonder how well a 20-year-old is aging. After all, most 20-somethings are really just entering their prime.
But most 20-year-olds haven't led quite as hard a life as the Confederation Bridge, not by a long shot. In its first two decades, the bridge has been run over by cars and trucks millions of times, attacked by hurricane force winds, and pounded with waves and ice winter after winter.
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So, you can forgive the look of pride on Donald McGinn's face as he points out just how shiny and new his favourite fixed link still looks after all these years.
"You can still see there's a reflection off the steel form surface of the concrete," said McGinn, Strait Crossing's Ddirector of maintenance and engineering.
"You wouldn't expect to see that reflection in five years time, or on most bridges, even three years time. So, to think that 20 years later, we still see that reflection, you wouldn't say this bridge is showing its age at all."
No safety concerns
Of course, a shiny surface alone isn't enough to declare the 13 kilometre bridge is in tip-top shape. That declaration only comes after the bridge's annual spring check up: a two-week long inspection of every pier, joint, and cubic metre of concrete.
It's exactly what McGinn and a team of engineers did in late May.
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"We're going over the side of the bridge, and we're looking at the outside surface," explained Eileen McEwen, an independent engineer hired by the federal government to be a part of the inspection. "So, we're looking for rust here and there, where the concrete and the form work may have slipped a little bit."
McEwen says the bridge is showing some signs of aging — that much is inevitable. But in 20 years, she says inspectors haven't found any major causes for concern.
"There's little things like rust marks that start coming up as the wind and rain and salt get into the concrete," she said. "And with age, concrete in general tends to wear a little bit. So we watch that, and monitor that. But 20 years in, those things are definitely easily maintained, and they're not safety concerns."
The small little bits that require any work, it's incredible. It's all done very well.- Donald McGinn, Strait Crossing Director of Maintenance and Engineering
McGinn, who has been working on the Confederation Bridge "since it was just a drawing on a piece of paper," says every year, he's more impressed by the bridge's condition.
"For the size and scale of it — 13 km of bridge, 340,000 cubic metres of concrete, the miles of square metres of surfaces we have — that's a lot of area," said McGinn. "And the small little bits that require any work, it's incredible. It's all done very well."
Bridge's design helping to keep it young
McGinn says a lot of people can take credit for the bridge's condition: its maintenance staff, its builders, and its team of design engineers, including Eric Tromposch.
In the early 1990's, Tromposch says his team was handed a daunting challenge by the federal government: design a 13 kilometre bridge durable enough to handle the Northumberland Strait's harsh weather conditions and ice covered waters, for at least 100 years.
"Even just that design life was unique at the time. Typical bridge codes were only based on a 50 year design life," said Tromposch. "And then the ice loads, that was a big challenge. I think we just about had every ice expert in the world working at one point in time. So coming up with those loads based on a 100 year design life was a big task."
I think we just about had every ice expert in the world working at one point in time.- Eric Tromposch, Design Engineer
They did it with the help of several unique materials and design approaches: from specially designed steel ice shields to protect the bridge's piers, to a high performance concrete.
"We had to create a structure that would resist corrosion, resist chloride penetration from the sea water," said Tromposch. "So we were very careful in selecting the materials that went into the concrete, to make sure we had something that was very sound and durable."
Engineers say climate change not a threat to bridge
It all has today's inspectors confident the bridge may outlive its 100 year shelf life. Not even the unpredictability of climate change, and the threat of more intense storms in the years ahead, has them concerned in the least bit.
"As we get bigger and bigger storms for wind and weather, the bridge has substantial capacity to weather them. So in terms of climate change, the bridge is in a good spot," assured Eileen McEwen.
"It's like your own child when you've been involved for this length of time," added McGinn. "You've seen them as a child grow up, and they're at that point now, where you know they're going to turn out okay."
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