The final steel parts for the Johnson Street Bridge are now sitting on a ship at Ogden Point. The ship arrived Sunday night carrying the main deck span, and pathways.
Crews will be transferring the massive pieces to a barge Monday, and there will be quite a sight when the 'new bridge meets old' as the pieces sail under the current bridge sometime Tuesday afternoon.
Bridge Project Director, Jonathan Huggett got up on the ship to get a close up view and describes the main deck piece as massive:
"It's about 43 metres long, currently about 18 metres wide. But when the pieces outside are attached it will go up to 36 metres wide. And currently it weighs about 360 tonnes, is what we are about to lift. Then with all the pieces on it will be about 480 tonnes."
The steel still needs to be cleaned up and inspected for shipping damage before assembly which is a few months away:
"The piece that's some in, there's separate pieces for all of these cycle lanes and pedestrian lanes that hang off the side. So all those have then got to be attached before we finally put it in place sometime Christmas."
If you want to get a look at the cargo being moved there's a public viewing area near the Helijet terminal. You can also see high resolution photos of the work being done on the JohnsonStreetBridge.com website.