Owner
City of Winnipeg—Bridge Department
Winnipeg, MB, Canada

Project Engineer/
Designer
Tetra Tech WEI, Inc.
Winnipeg, MB, Canada

Repair Contractor
Vector Construction, Ltd.
Winnipeg, MB, Canada

Material Supplier/
Manufacturer
Vector Corrosion Technologies
Winnipeg, MB, Canada 

In 2009, the City of Winnipeg used an innovative design-build-finance-maintain (DBFM) contract to address corrosion-damaged bridges on the Disraeli Freeway. The selected DBFM contractor would be responsible for the design, construction, and subsequent maintenance for a 30-year period. The final design concept was to replace the two 50-year-old bridges with new parallel structures to minimize the significant lane closures expected if the structures were to be rehabilitated. This was the City’s preferred solution, as the freeway is an important link to downtown Winnipeg from northeast sections of the city.

The original bridge over the railway was demolished after the new bridge was opened. The second bridge, spanning the Red River, would be repurposed as an attractive pedestrian bridge. A new bridge superstructure was constructed on top of the existing Red River bridge piers to stay within the budget and project schedule.

The four existing Red River bridge piers were significantly chloride-contaminated and actively corroding. To meet the needs of the DBFM entity and the City, a long-term repair and corrosion mitigation solution was necessary. Spalled and delaminated concrete was replaced using form-and-pour concrete repairs, and cracks were repaired using epoxy injection. The two land-based piers underwent an electrochemical chloride extraction treatment, and the two river-based piers had an activated arc-sprayed zinc galvanic anode system installed. The systems were selected based on their expected long-term performance without ongoing system maintenance and the ability of the installation to fit into the tight construction schedule.

All rehabilitation work was successfully completed during the winter of 2013 within heated enclosures and the bridges opened in the summer of 2013.