Vancouver Bridge Earns National Historic Status
On July 13, 2006 at a brief plaque unveiling ceremony, the designation of the landmark Lions’ Gate Bridge as Canada’s 42nd National Historic Civil Engineering Site was announced by BC Transportation Minister Kevin Falcon.
Officiating the ceremony at the bridge’s south end was Max Bischof, P.Eng. Struct. Eng., member of the Canadian Society for Civil Engineering (CSCE), which leads and maintains the Historic Civil Engineering Sites register. Historical commentary was provided by fellow CSCE member Peter Buckland, P.Eng. of Buckland & Taylor Ltd., engineers for all major rehabilitation work on the bridge since 1972.
“The Lions’ Gate Bridge has been an engineering marvel for 68 years,” said Falcon, accompanied by MLAs Joan McIntyre (West Vancouver-Garibaldi) and Katherine Whittred (North Vancouver-Lonsdale). “Engineers continue to help us to build this province and I am pleased to acknowledge all of the great things they do.”
The longest suspension bridge in western Canada, this three-lane crossing at the First Narrows of Burrard Inlet has been a prominent Vancouver structure since it opened to traffic in 1938. The bridge was built by the Guinness family and sold to the Province of BC in 1955. A two-year, $20 million project to apply new protective coatings to the bridge—including removal, disposal and replacement of the 60-year-old paint—has just been completed.
“The work that has been done on the Lions’ Gate is groundbreaking in many ways,” said Buckland, whose firm engineered the 2001 replacement of the entire suspended structure in prefabricated segments. This work was conducted at night with the bridge open to daytime traffic — a first in suspension bridge history. The bridge is economical, durable and expected to last at least another 100 years, he indicated.
Research on the bridge has led to increased knowledge about many aspects of long-span bridge behaviour. Studies include traffic loading, aerodynamic testing and turbulent wind flow, the findings of which have been incorporated into both Canadian and American bridge design codes. Engineering techniques used in the bridge rehabilitation and replacement have been applied to many other bridges worldwide.
A multiple award winner, the Lions’ Gate Bridge has collected nine honours including the 2003 Award for Engineering Achievement (Canadian Council of Professional Engineers), the 2002 Schreyer Award (Association of Consulting Engineers of Canada) and the 2002 Lieutenant Governor's Award of Excellence (Consulting Engineers of BC).