By Richard Bell
The 61m temporary bridge that will carry two lanes of traffic on Highway 7 in Musquodoboit Harbour is starting to take shape on the east side of the river. The temporary bridge is a Bailey Bridge, which was invented and deployed during World War II to provide fast temporary bridges for Allied forces dealing with all the bridges destroyed by the retreating Germany army. The Bailey Bridge’s component parts are designed to fit together like a giant toy Erector Set.
The most important feature of this design is that it allows builders to put the bridge together on one side of a crossing, and then roll the bridge across, without having to build out from the other side. If you look closely when you drive by the construction site, you will see a series of concrete squares flush with the ground with some low metal rollers fixed on top. The builder, EllisDon Civil East, will literally be rolling the assembled bridge on these rollers to the west side of the river.
With the temporary bridge in place, the company will then take down the existing 45.7m “Warren Type” truss bridge and build a new permanent 48m bridge with steel I-girders and a concrete deck on the site of the old Green Bridge.
