The leafy suburb of Beaconsfield, in Montreal’s West Island, now sports a 13.5 m (44 ft.) aluminum footbridge that allows pedestrians and cyclists to safely cross a ravine at 375 Elm Avenue.
April 14, 2017—Boucherville, Quebec, Canada — MAADI Group worked with the City of Montreal’s supervising engineer to install the footbridge in a challenging location. The multi-tonne mill finish aluminum structure had to be lowered in place beneath electric power lines a few days before Christmas.
As a safety measure, power to the neighbourhood was cut while two huge winches carefully lowered the footbridge into place. The operation, completed in one day, went very smoothly.
The collaboration between the City and MAADI Group was “very good,” according to the City of Montreal’s supervising engineer, Sergio Sollazzo. He added that the MAADI team was “very professional and did good work.”
The pedestrian bridge complies with CAN/CSA-S6-06 and CAN/CSA S157-05 (Canadian Highway Bridge Design Code). The aluminum plates are made of alloys 5083-H321 and 6061-T6. The tubes are fabricated from 6061-T6. Welding complies with the standards of CAN/CSA W47.2 (R2015) and CAN/CSA W59.2 (R2013).
The footbridge’s pedestrian and bicycle barriers are composed of horizontal railings with maximum openings of 150 mm (5.9 in.). The pedestrian load applied to the walkway area is 4.0 kPa (85 psf) while the load on barrier railings consists of a uniform load of 1.20 kN/m applied laterally and vertically, simultaneously.
The structure could safely bear a light truck of 3,400 kg (3.75 tons). MAADI’s aluminum bridge is totally maintenance-free, which saves the municipality considerable time and money over the life of the bridge.
