New Westminster Bridge | |
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 | |
| Coordinates | 49°12′29″N122°53′39″W / 49.208167°N 122.894204°W /49.208167; -122.894204 (New Westminster Bridge) |
| Carries | Freight and passenger trains Originally, trains and automobiles |
| Crosses | Fraser River |
| Locale | New Westminster Surrey |
| Owner | Government of Canada |
| Maintained by | Canadian National Railway |
| Characteristics | |
| Design | Swing bridge |
| Material | Steel[1] |
| Pier construction | Granite[1] |
| Total length | 543 m (1,780 ft) (not including approaches)[2] |
| Longest span | 116 m (380 ft)[3]: E–3 |
| No. of spans | 8 truss spans |
| Clearance below | 6.7 m (22 ft)[4] |
| Capacity | 60 trains per day[5] |
| Rail characteristics | |
| No. oftracks | 1 |
| Track gauge | 4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) (standard gauge) |
| Electrified | No |
| History | |
| Designer | Waddell & Hedrick[1] |
| Construction start | August 1902[1] |
| Construction end | July 1904[6] |
| Construction cost | CA$1,000,000[6] |
| Opened | July 23, 1904[1] |
| Statistics | |
| Daily traffic | 33 (as of 2024[update])[4] |
| Location | |
 Interactive map of New Westminster Bridge | |
TheNew Westminster Bridge (also known as theNew Westminster Rail Bridge (NWRB)[7] or theFraser River Swing Bridge) is aswing bridge that crosses theFraser River and connectsNew Westminster withSurrey, British Columbia, Canada.
The bridge is owned by theGovernment of Canada. Since 1992, theCanadian National Railway (CNR) has operated and maintained the bridge. TheSouthern Railway of British Columbia (SRY),Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC), andBNSF Railway have track usage rights. Passenger rail service over the bridge is offered byAmtrak'sCascades (with service toPortland andSeattle),Via Rail'sThe Canadian (with service toToronto), andRocky Mountaineer.[8]
Construction of the New Westminster Bridge began in August 1902, and the new bridge was formally opened on July 23, 1904 by theLieutenant governor of British Columbia.[1] It was originally built with two decks; the lower deck was used for rail traffic while the upper deck was used for automobile traffic.[9] The rail part of the bridge initially connectedGreat Northern Railway (predecessor ofBNSF) tracks south of the river toCanadian Pacific (predecessor ofCPKC) tracks north of the river.[2]
Before the New Westminster Bridge was built, crossing the river required boarding theK de K orSurrey ferry, which docked at the present day neighbourhood ofSouth Westminster (formerly the historic community ofBrownsville) located in the city ofSurrey.[10]
The toll for the upper bridge was 25 cents[citation needed] and created quite an uproar for farmers who found out quickly that by taking their livestock across on foot would cost them a quarter a head but if they put them in a truck it cost a quarter for the whole load.
After March 1910, passenger and vehicle tolls were no longer charged.[11]
By the 1930s, the bridge was judged inadequate to handle the increased demand in road traffic over the Fraser River. In January 1936, theCanadian Department of Public Works, which was responsible for the marine navigation safety of the country's navigable waters, determined that a dedicated new road crossing could be built under certain conditions. The new crossing would have to be located as close as possible downstream of the current bridge, and British Columbia province would have to either replace the swing span of the current bridge with avertical-lift span that allowed 76 metres (250 ft) of horizontal clearance and 44 metres (145 ft) of vertical clearance above thefreshet level, or remove the existing upper-deck road portion of the bridge and transfer bridge ownership to the Public Works department. The latter alternative was recommended to reduce the number of involved parties, because the federal government already handled marine navigation safety and controlled (beforeprivatisation) CNR, which had become the primary user of the rail portion of the bridge. British Columbia PremierDuff Pattullo quickly declared that the province would take the latter option. ThePattullo Bridge road crossing subsequently opened in November 1937. The upper deck of the New Westminster Bridge was removed, the bridge was converted exclusively for rail use, and in October 1939, ownership of the bridge was given to the federal government.[12][13][11]
Although CNR typically accounted for 85% or more of annual traffic,[14][15]Burlington Northern Railroad (successor to Great Northern Railway, predecessor of BNSF) performedtrain dispatching for the bridge through at least the mid-1970s, making final decisions from itsSeattle, Washington office.[16][17]
In December 1991, CNR announced that it would be granted a deed of entrustment to the bridge from Public Works Canada, and that it would spendCA$15,000,000 on bridge repairs.[18] This entrustment agreement specified that the Canadian federal government would transfer operational and maintenance control, but not ownership, of the bridge to CNR.[19] The $15 million bridge rehabilitation would add 25 years to the usable life of the crossing.[20]
In 2004, CNR and Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) began some coordinated operations inGreater Vancouver to address rail capacity issues caused by Canada's growing trade volumes with Asia.[21][22][23] These new operations helped to reduce traffic pressures at the bridge.[24] In January 2006, CNR entered an agreement with BNSF to gain operational, dispatching, and maintenance control of BNSF track from the bridge northward and westward to central Vancouver and the South Shore of theBurrard Inlet in exchange for CNR assets inIllinois andTennessee, such as similar control ofinterlockers inChicago, Illinois andMemphis, Tennessee and other trackage rights. Because of this agreement, CNR gained contiguous control of itsmain line corridor from theNorth Shore of the Burrard Inlet, itsSecond Narrows Rail Bridge across Burrard Inlet, andThornton Tunnel by connecting them through the BNSF track to the New Westminster Bridge and CNR's main line track south of the Fraser River.[25][26] A week later, CNR used its greater control of the BNSF track to expand the scope of its coordinated rail operations with CPR throughout theLower Mainland.[27][28][29] By 2014, the implementation of coordinated rail operations was considered a success in preserving available rail capacity at the bridge, at least on a short-term (20-year) basis.[30]
The bridge is a heavily usedsingle-track railway that supports only low train speeds and is swung open for marine traffic for a significant portion of each day. Because of this situation, studies have been conducted to relocate the northern terminus ofAmtrak'sCascades passenger train service fromPacific Central Station indowntown Vancouver southeast by 21 kilometres (13 mi) to Surrey. The proposed new terminus at theSkytrain rapid transit system'sScott Road Station is about 900 metres (3,000 ft) from the bridge. The location would allow additional round trips fromSeattle, Washington to be added by avoiding the need to cross the Fraser River.[31][32][3][33]
In the early 2020s, CNR completed seismic upgrades to the bridge.[8]
The bridge crosses the Fraser River at about 24 kilometres (15 mi) upstream of the location where the river empties into theStrait of Georgia.[34] It is situated 61 metres (200 ft) upstream of the original Pattullo Bridge road crossing,[12] but will be about 50 metres (160 ft) downstream of the new Pattullo Bridge,[35][36] which is scheduled to open in 2025 as the replacement for the 1937 road crossing.[37]
The bridge was constructed with five fixedtruss spans of 48 metres (159 ft) in length near the south bank of the river (Surrey side). The width of these spans were 5.5 metres (18 ft). North of these shorter spans was the 116-metre swing truss span (380 ft), and then a fixed truss span that was also 116 metres (380 ft) in length. These two longer spans had a width of 5.8 metres (19 ft). The final truss span had a length of 69 metres (225 ft), but its width expanded from 5.8 metres (19 ft) to 41 metres (136 ft) as it neared the north bank of the river (New Westminster side). This unusual feature was designed to accommodate the splitting and turning of the bridge's rail track into eastbound and westbound tracks, which would merge with the existing CPR track along the New Westminster shoreline.[2]
The bridge's lower-deck rail track was vertically aligned with the base of all eight truss spans. The upper-deck road was placed on top of the five shorter truss spans, and was aligned at mid-height on the three longer truss spans. The horizontal clearance was 4.9 metres (16 ft) for both the rail and road decks.[2]
As of 2004[update], the speed limit for trains was 11 miles per hour (18 kilometres per hour), which had been increased from 8 mph (13 km/h).[38]
The bridge opens for marine traffic about 20 times each day. It takes about 7 minutes for the bridge to swing open or closed. When opened, the swing span provides 51.2 metres (168 ft) of horizontal clearance at a river control depth of 9.9 metres (32 ft) for the New Westminster side of the opening (which usually hosts ship traffic headed upstream), and it provides 48.8 metres (160 ft) of horizontal clearance at a river control depth of 8.2 metres (27 ft) for the Surrey side (which usually hosts ships headed downstream).[4] The deepest part of the river actually flows under the 116-metre fixed span (380 ft), where the water depth under ordinary conditions was 24 to 26 metres (80 to 85 ft) at the time of construction.[34]
There have been several other proposals to renovate or replace the current swing bridge with avertical-lift bridge span, because a lift bridge opens and closes faster than a swing bridge, and a lift bridge does not cut the maximum width of the navigation channel in half.[39] Lumber companyCrown Zellerbach had requested a lift bridge conversion from 1936 into the late 1960s, because thetides,freshets, river channel currents, and limited horizontal clearance of the swing bridge prevented oceangoing ships from directly reaching its lumber exporting site upstream atFraser Mills, British Columbia.[40] In 1964, William George Swan, who designed the originalPattullo Bridge and the replacementSecond Narrows road bridge, lobbied the federal government to build a wider, vertical-lift bridge in place of the current bridge.[41]
In 1965, after CNR announced plans to replace theSecond Narrows Bridge, there was speculation that the original bridge's lift span, which had a 83-metre (271 ft) horizontal clearance, would be used to replace the swing span on the New Westminster Bridge. This transfer would help retain the estimated 75–100 commercial ships that theFraser River Harbour Commission was losing to Vancouver because of insufficient navigation width through the swing span.[42][43] The transfer never occurred, as the old Second Narrows Bridge was sold for scrap metal in 1970.[44] In 1976, when the bridge was out of service after having a span destroyed by a ship collision, a conversion to a lift bridge mechanism was suggested again. However, the estimate of 18 months required to build a lift span was considered too much time to sustain a functioning rail network without a working bridge.[45]
By 2003, the bridge handled 46 train crossings per day (out of a rated daily capacity of 59 trains),[46] and it was identified as a first-priority rail infrastructure project inGreater Vancouver.[47] Three improvement scenarios were studied in 2004. The first scenario kept status quo operations between rail carriers but replaced the bridge with a new $110 million, 850-metre-long (2,790 ft), single-track vertical-lift bridge replacement that supports higher speeds, has a higher 11.7-metre clearance (38 ft) when closed, and is expandable to a double-track bridge. The second scenario maintained status quo operations but replaced the bridge with a new $420 million, 7.5-kilometre-long (4.7 mi), single-track tunnel (immersed tube below the Fraser River channel) to replace the existing bridge. The third scenario implemented coordinated rail operations between rail carriers but retained the existing bridge.[48] The study recommended that coordinated rail operations be undertaken.[49]
In 2010, as part of investigations to replace the originalPattullo Bridge road crossing adjacent to the New Westminster Bridge,Transport Canada studied two possible options to replace the rail crossing: a double-track, single-deck bridge at the same elevation for $360 million, and a double-deck bridge for $470 million. CNR advocated its own option, which was a triple-track, single-deck vertical-lift bridge at the same elevation for $600 million. The upstream and middle bridge tracks would connect the CNR-controlled BNSF main line tracks north of the river to the CNR main line tracks south of the river, while the downstream bridge track would be accessible from all 5 approaches, like the lone track on the current bridge.[50]
In the early 2020s, theCanada Infrastructure Bank funded a study to examine freight traffic needs over the New Westminster bridge.[19] The study narrowed down to two options to address traffic growth. The first option was to simply replace the current single-track bridge with a new double-track bridge in the existing location. The second, preferred option was to maintain the existing bridge with structural upgrades, while also building an additional, double-track bridge upstream from the current bridge.[51]
On December 26, 1975, the bridge was damaged when a logbarge drifted into and through the structure, ripping out the 116-metre main span (380 ft).[52] The bridge was repaired and returned to service in late April 1976.[53][54][55] The relatively quick fix was helped by modifying a recently completed design for a span that was just 1.5 metres (5 ft) shorter, created by theHoward, Needles, Tammen & Bergendoff design firm ofKansas City, Missouri[56] for theRulo Rail Bridge over theMissouri River inRulo, Nebraska.[57]
On May 29, 1982, a significant fire broke out on the New Westminster Bridge.[58] The fire put the bridge out of service for almost a month. The bridge reopened on June 23, 1982.[59][60]
On November 28, 1987, a barge struck the swing span of the bridge. While out of service, the swing span was hit again by a different barge on December 17. The bridge reopened on December 24. Repairs to the bridge cost about $2 million.[61] The resulting legal action ofCanadian National Railway Co. v. Norsk Pacific Steamship Co. became a leadingSupreme Court of Canada decision.[62]
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