Saskatoon's Traffic Bridge to go down with a 'crack' Sunday morning
Two south spans to fall onto in-river berm
A big piece of Saskatoon's history is coming down Sunday, making way for a new one. Two spans of the Traffic Bridge will be knocked down with explosives.
For more than a century, the bridge has spanned the South Saskatchewan River uniting Saskatoon's east and west sides. On Sunday at 9 a.m. CST, that link will be broken in dramatic fashion to make way for a new Traffic Bridge.
The city's special projects manager, Dan Willems, joined host Leisha Grebinski on Saskatoon Morning to talk about the partial-demolition.
Still, the sound will be a large, simultaneous crack. And it'll dramatic, albeit quick, Willems said. How will the explosion work?
"Essentially, the contractor [Graham Commuter Partners] is using a shaped explosive charge to sever the structural members of the bridge, and drop it down onto the berm [in the river]. At that point, the structure will be dismantled and hauled away for disposal," he explained.
The in-river berm was built in December for Sunday's take-down.
According to Willems, the explosion will look like "taking an instantaneous plasma torch or cutting torch to these members all at once to sever them all at one time, and drop those two spans simultaneously down onto the berm."
Sunday's demolition will only be partial. Willems said it will remove two southern spans on the bridge, still leaving parts of it intact and standing.
As far as safety goes, he noted that there will be a 250-meter radius around the blast zone, to keep people a safe distance away. Nearby residents have been asked to stay off their balconies during the explosion.
Willems said the best place for people looking to catch a glimpse of the take-down should grab a spot on the adjacent Broadway Bridge, which will be closed to traffic in the morning.
The remaining two spans of the bridge will stay standing, and eventually be taken down as construction of a new traffic bridge progresses.
