William R. Bennett Bridge

William R. Bennett Bridge
William R. Bennett Bridge
	The bridge seen from Kelowna City Park
Coordinates	49°52′47″N 119°30′43″W / 49.879648°N 119.511852°W
Carries	5 lanes of Highway 97, pedestrians and bicycles
Crosses	Okanagan Lake
Locale	Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada
Official name	William R. Bennett Bridge
Maintained by	Protrans WRB Bridge (SNC-Lavalin)
Characteristics
Design	Pontoon bridge
Longest span	44 metres (144 ft)
Clearance below	18 metres (59 ft)
History
Opened	May 25, 2008
Statistics
Daily traffic	50,000 vehicles
Location

The William R. Bennett Bridge is a pontoon bridge in the Okanagan Valley of British Columbia, Canada. Completed on May 25, 2008, the bridge replaced the older Okanagan Lake Bridge built in 1958 to link Downtown Kelowna to West Kelowna across Okanagan Lake as part of Highway 97.

On April 21, 2005, Premier Gordon Campbell officially renamed the bridge, then the Okanagan Lake Bridge, the William R. Bennett Bridge in honour of former premier Bill Bennett, a native of Kelowna.

Construction budget

The first press release from the British Columbia Ministry of Transportation to include budget information was in 2003. At that time, the project was estimated to cost CA$100 million for the bridge and another $20 million for the two interchange upgrades on the west side of the lake.^[1]

By June 29, 2005, the cost of the bridge had increased from the previous estimate of $100 million to $144 million "due to dramatic increases in the cost of construction materials and labour", which included significant increases in the cost of concrete, steel, and fuel. Over the next 30 years, the province of British Columbia expected to pay SNC-Lavalin a total of $179 million "to design, build, finance, operate, maintain and rehabilitate the bridge".^[2]

Construction schedule

April 2005: Arthon Construction begins bridge end preloads from rock on Westside Road
May 2005: Arthon completes east side preload
June 2005: SNC-Lavalin is chosen to design, build, finance and operate the new bridge
July 2005: Construction begins on a dry dock near Bear Creek Provincial Park, where the bridge pontoons will be built
Q3 2005: Arthon completes preloads on west side of Lake Okanagan
Q3 2005: Graving dock ready
Q3 2006: Roadwork on both approaches begins
Q4 2006: First four pontoons in place
Q1 2007: Bridge deck construction begins
Q4 2007: All pontoons in place
Q4 2007: Roadwork on both approaches is completed
Q1 2008: Bridge deck construction is completed
Q2 2008: Test and commission
Q2 2008: Bridge officially opens
- Official opening scheduled for May 25, 2008
Q2 2009: Decommission of the old bridge
Q2 2009: Shoreline restoration

Bridge facts

Extending 1,060 metres (3,478 ft) long in total, the bridge includes a 690-metre (2,264 ft) string of long poles holding pontoons supporting an elevated deck^[3]
At the deepest point near the middle of the bridge, the lake is approximately 60 metres (197 ft) deep
There are a total of 9 concrete pontoons
The pontoons are 25 metres (82 ft) wide and 60 to 90 metres (197 to 295 ft) long
The navigation span on the west side of the bridge is 44 metres (144 ft) long and provides 18 metres (59 ft) of clearance between the bridge and the lake^[1]
Three lanes are for westbound traffic
Two lanes are for eastbound traffic
An additional 1.3 metres (4 ft 3 in) wide pedestrian and cyclist pathway exists on the south (eastbound) side of the bridge
The west side of the bridge has a pedestrian, cyclist, and vehicle underpass at Campbell Road and another interchange at Westside Road
The Kelowna side of the bridge retains the existing pedestrian and cyclist underpass between City Park and Lake Avenue
The new bridge was designed to handle up to 80,000 vehicles daily; the old Okanagan Lake Bridge was designed to handle 38,000 vehicles daily but, in 2005, handled approximately 50,000 vehicles daily^[4]^[5]
The bridge is maintained by Protrans WRB Bridge, which is a subsidiary of SNC-Lavalin^[6]

Gallery

Construction of concrete pontoon #2 in February 2006
Roadway towers under construction on top of pontoon #2 in June 2006
Pile driving where the west side approach was built
Bridge from West Kelowna, with parts of the original bridge in the foreground
Heading eastbound on the completed bridge

References

^ Province of British Columbia (28 Oct 2003). "New Bridge Fulfils Premier's Commitment to Kelowna" (PDF). Government of British Columbia. Archived from the original (PDF) on 18 July 2011. Retrieved 11 December 2022.
^ Province of British Columbia (29 June 2005). "SNC-Lavalin Chosen To Deliver William R. Bennett Bridge" (PDF). Government of British Columbia. Archived from the original (PDF) on 11 June 2011. Retrieved 11 December 2022.
^ Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure. "Profile of the Elevated Portion of the William R. Bennett Bridge" (PDF). th.gov.bc.ca. Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-06-11. Retrieved 11 December 2022.
^ McHugh, Anne-Rachelle (8 February 2006). "Public hates billboards -- report". Westside Weekly.
^ Canadian Consulting Engineer Staff. "William R. Bennett Bridge". canadianconsultingengineer.com. Canadian Consulting Engineer. Retrieved 11 December 2022.
^ Protrans WRB. "Protrans WRB Bridge". Protrans WRB Bridge. Retrieved 11 December 2022.