March 28, 2025
With many projects in our portfolio, AIL is a recognized leader in the design and supply of efficient wildlife crossings and fish passages. So, when officials from the British Columbia Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure (BC MoTI) reached out to us about two upcoming projects, we weren’t that surprised.
This project, a crossing over Highway 93 just south of Radium Hot Springs, BC, had been on BC MoTI’s to-do list for several years. In fact, this was the second time we had bid on it and won.
The new crossing was now deemed time-sensitive as 15% of the mountain goat population in this area had been lost to vehicle strikes in 2022. The local Bighorn Sheep and motorists weren’t doing too well either.
Buried Metal Bridge design overcomes numerous project constraints
Installation of the crossing needed to overcome several constraints:
- It had to be installed over live traffic with limited lane drops and four-hour nightly shutdowns
- Restrictive laydown areas at the site
- Poor bearing capacity of the foundation soils
- An accelerated schedule around a winter shutdown period
- A limited budget with the project being somewhat donor-driven.
Thankfully, all these constraints could be overcome by AIL’s Buried Metal Bridge systems as they are inherently easy to install quickly, often without substantial road closures or watercourse diversions. And their flexibility makes them better suited to high settlement sites than the concrete arch alternative that was originally considered.
