engineering
Bridge Design
ME has been responsible for the design and construction supervision of various types of bridges in B.C. for the past 3 decades. The projects included preliminary and detailed design of highway and pedestrian bridges across the province. ME designed approximately 20 bridges for the Vancouver Island Highway Project alone. Notable bridges under this category include, four Suspension Bridges (Pete Wolf, Loss Creek, Sombrio & Minute Creek) on Juan de Fuca Marine Trail, Graham Bridge on Highway 99, Sombrio River No. 2 Bridge on Highway 14, Millstone River Bridge on Highway 19, White River Bridge on Sayward Road, Rogers Avenue Pedestrian Overpass on Patricia Highway and Dease River Bridge on Highway 37.
Bridge inspection & Evaluation
ME has performed numerous bridge inspections in British Columbia for the Ministry of Transportation and municipalities. We inspect channel stability, superstructure and substructure including the inspection of piles above and below the waterline. For Esquimalt Lagoon Bridge in Colwood B.C., we evaluated the feasibility of replacing its deck system while retaining the existing sub-structure. Other notable projects in this category include all bridges between Sooke and Port Renfrew on Highway 14 and all bridges on Circle Route between Port Renfrew and Mesachie Lake.
Bridge rehabilitation
ME has carried out several bridge rehabilitation designs which include timber & concrete decks, bridge bearings, compression seal joints, shear keys for seismic restraint, non-composite deck panels and addition of sidewalks. Some notable projects include Bing, Bambrick, Killarney, Harris Pond, Big Tree Creek, Cougar Creek and Simms Creek Bridges.
structural health monitoring
ME has recently ventured into structural health monitoring of long-span bridges. Mr Bakht, Ph.D., P.Eng. has a doctoral degree from the University of Western Ontario (UWO), where he learnt state-of-art techniques for analyzing full-scale data for the Confederation Bridge between New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island. Based on ten years of data from the various wind anemometers and accelerometers, Mr. Bakht successfully validated design wind speed and bridge response assumed for the design of bridge. While at UWO, he also did full-scale testing of pedestrian bridges to determine their dynamic response. Later at the B.C. Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure, he developed algorithms for the evaluation of full-scale data for the Pitt River Bridge.
weighing & supervision
ME has been performing bridge evaluations for overweight permit vehicles and reducible loads for the B.C. Trucking Industry since 2006. We have been the prime consultant for the Ministry’s bridge overload evaluations. This work has required the management of four other consultants under tight deadlines. We have performed thousands of overload evaluations in every area of the province and are familiar with bridges on all major provincial highways. Some notable bridges in this category include Pouce Coupe River Bridge on Highway 49, Tastsquan Creek Bridge on Highway 20, Rescue Creek Bridge on Highway 37, Craigellaghie Overhead on Highway 1, Gunter Bridge on Highway 52, Bitter Creek on Highway 37A, Red River Bridge on Highway 99, Basalt Creek on Highway 16 and Bonaparte # 4 on Highway 97.
MOTI Overload program
Our team consists of evaluators for the Overload Program at the BC Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure, where we evaluate bridges to ensure the safe passage of overweight (Single Permit) vehicles, Reducible Loads and Fire Trucks across the Province.