An international project team battled unprecedented flooding while treading lightly on Calgary's landscape to build the St. Patrick's Pedestrian Bridge across the Bow River. The slender, three-span steel-arch structure features a prestressed-concrete deck and inclined hanger cables, requiring rigorous fabrication and finish standards. Supported in part by foundations at each bank of St. Patrick's Island, the bridge's multiple arches are intended to evoke stones skipping across water.
In 2013, crews grappled with a flood that washed out falsework. The team rebuilt the deck and altered sequencing of arch erection and load transfer to eliminate temporary works in time for the next flood-event period. The 180-meter-long footbridge took shape in 27 months, with no significant incidents over 130,000 man-hours.
The signature footbridge links not only neighborhoods and nodes of transportation but also the natural beauty of the river corridor and the cosmopolitan nature of Calgary.
Project Team
Owner: Calgary Municipal Land Corp.
Contractor: Graham Construction and Engineering, a joint venture
Lead Design Firm, Structural Engineer: RFR Group
Civil Engineer: WSP | Parsons Brinckerhoff
Lighting: Speirs + Major
Landscape Design: Jane Rosenberg & Studio
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