BrandSafway Engineers Truss Frame System for Alberta’s Bow River Bridge Twinning Project

Building upon its work with Flatiron-Aecon Joint Venture on the Calgary Ring Road Project in Alberta, Canada, BrandSafway's Major Projects Group (MPG) and the Infrastructure Services Group were selected to design and build a one-of-a-kind under-bridge traveling platform to provide access for the final construction stages of the Bow River Bridge twinning project. "This solution proves, once again, that BrandSafway can meet the widest range of project demands, where safety and efficiency are high priorities," said Alex Di Domenico, managing director, BrandSafway, MPG. "We started working with Flatiron-Aecon in 2019 at the beginning of the Bow River Bridge twinning project by providing stairs and engineering services. Now, we’re proud to be designing and fabricating an innovative access solution for its completion."

“BrandSafway has provided the most efficient solution for our challenging access requirements to the underside of the bridge,” said Kyle Hendrikx, bridge manager for Flatiron-Aecon Joint Venture. “With their platform, we will be significantly more efficient with less downtime to our operations.’’

 The unique, triangle-shaped Truss Frame System solution was custom-designed for Flatiron-Aecon to provide safe access to the underside of the bridge for several workers at a time. Adapted to have retractable extensions, the solution allows the system to travel around piers, without having to dismantle the platform. Patent-pending launching extensions, which are now available to the bridge market, will allow the entire 112-foot length and 32-foot width C-frame structure to move back and forth along the 1542-foot length of the bridge.

Triangular Trusses

The platform consists of two half-truss frame platforms mounted securely to the manually operating top bridge deck carriages. Each half-platform is equipped with launching triangular trusses, which are extended and retracted manually as the system travels the length of the bridge, across four bridge piers. Traditional Systems Scaffold, located on each half of the fixed truss platform, provides access to the underside of the bridge segments.

"BrandSafway’s patent-pending Truss Frame System provides the flexibility, mobility and low cost of a movable platform system, while eliminating need for hoists and cranes to traverse around bridge piers,” said Mathieu Grumberg, director of North American Product Development for BrandSafway and the engineer who designed and developed the innovative solution for the twinning project.

Flatiron-Aecon's West Bow River Bridge twinning project has been tendered at a cost of $89 million CAD. According to Aecon, the Bow River Bridge twinning project is a key component in the completion of the Calgary Ring Road and will provide vital transportation infrastructure for growing communities in the Greater Calgary Area. When complete, the entire Calgary Ring Road will provide travelers with 101 kilometers of free-flow travel. AlumaSafway, which provides the broadest range of forming, shoring, scaffolding, work access and industrial service solutions to the industrial, commercial and infrastructure markets in Canada, will manage the delivery of site services for BrandSafway in Alberta. BrandSafway's new under-bridge traveler access platform will be in use on the Bow River Bridge twinning project in 2022 and 2023.

For more information about BrandSafway, visit www.brandsafway.com.