Fraser River Pile and Dredge workers performed a feat of engineering Thursday, lifting a multi-tonne rail bridge off its pedestal and placing it on a custom built framework to support it on a barge.
According to Frank Butzelaar, president of Southern Railway of B.C., the company that owns the rail span, it will now be taken down river where engineers can "crawl all over it" and repair the gear mechanism damaged in the June 28 collision between a gravel barge and the rail bridge.
The moving of the span will likely mean the reopening of the north arm of the Fraser to boat traffic, at least in one direction, soon, Butzelaar said.
"Because there's no protection pier on the upriver side, we can't allow traffic to approach from that side," he said. "But the protection pier on the downriver side is in place so we could probably allow traffic through moving upriver."
Butzelaar said engineers will do a survey of the river bottom to check for dangerous debris before reopening the north arm.
Engineering work for repairing the damaged protection pier has already begun.
