1. The Golden Ears Bridge
project comprises a six-lane
toll bridge and associated
road network crossing the
Fraser River and connecting
the communities of Langley /
Surrey and Maple Ridge / Pitt
Meadows in British Columbia.
Bilfinger Berger was awarded
the contract for the design,
construction, financing, and
32-years operation and main-
tenance of the project.
The cable-stayed bridge will
be 976 m long with three
main spans above the river,
each 244 m long and two
shoreline spans, each 122 m
long. The northern approach
bridge will be 1.4 km long
and the southern approach
bridge will have a length of
842 m. The clearance above
the river will be 40 m.
The structural type of the
bridge is an extradosed sys-
tem, a hybrid design between
a prestressed concrete
bridge and a cable-stayed
bridge. It is characterized by a
considerably reduced pylon
height as compared to a
cable-stayed bridge and a
reduced girder height as
compared to a prestressed
concrete girder bridge.
The 32 m wide bridge deck
will be a composite steel
structure built using the bal-
anced cantilever method. The
10 m long prefabricated
sections weighing 80 tonnes
each will be lifted from the
river into their final position.
The eight pylons situated in
the river are each 90 m high.
Two at a time are founded on
12 bored piles with diameters
of 2.40 m and lengths of
about 80 m.
The project also requires new
infrastructure and road im-
provements including new
arterial roads connecting the
bridge to the existing road
network on both sides of the
Fraser River.
Municipal roads with a com-
bined length of 12.2 km will
be upgraded to improve
traffic flows and facilitate the
integration of the new cross-
ing into the existing road
network. Provincial highways
and interchanges will be
modified over a length of
about 2 km. A total of 13.2 km
of new 2, 4 and 6-lane urban
arterial roads will be devel-
oped with interchanges and
at-grade intersections.
This will require the construc-
tion of another 17 bridges so
that the total bridge length
including the main bridge will
amount to 4,656 m with a
combined deck area of
112,000 m². The bridge struc-
tures will be founded on
150,000 m of precast con-
crete piles.
A total of 650.000 m² of as-
phalt pavement will be
placed. Furthermore, a total of
about 140,000 m³ of con-
crete, 25,000 tonnes of rein-
forcing steel and 9,000 ton-
nes of structural steel, mainly
for the main bridge, will be
required for the project. For
the road works, about
700,000 m³ of earth will be
moved.
Golden Ears
Bridge, Vancouver,
Canada
Contract Value:
USD (m) 683.9
Construction Period:
02/2006 – 06/2009
Client:
GVTA – Greater Vancouver
Transportation Authority
(TransLink)
Services:
Design, construction,
financing and 32-years
operation and maintenance
of a road bridge and the
associated road network
Reg.07-BB-802-19.7.126-00-A