A Short Biography of the Peace River Bridge

NEAR FORT ST. JOHN, B.C., flows the
Peace River, the greatest waterway en-
countered along the whole length of the
Alaska Highway, and across this it had been
determined to erect a steel suspension
bridge, to form the most important perma-
nent link in the highway system. It was a
massive undertaking, massive even in a well
populated industrial area with men, tools
and transportation at hand, but doubly and
trebly so in the bleakness on the edge of the
wilderness. A great fund of specialized en-
gineering knowledge and experience was
necessary to its successful achievement.

Contract for furnishing and erecting the
entire superstructure was awarded by the
Public Roads Administration to John A.
Roebling’s Sons Company of Trenton, New
Jersey, builders of the famous Niagara and
Brooklyn bridges.

In December, 1942, the company’s Resi-
dent Engineer, Mr. Harold W. Hills, ar-
rived at Fort St. John, h’s m‘nd occupied
with details of the contracts, etc.

The construction of the bridge required
a high fill approach to the south and a deep
cut to the north. The ice on the river was
still treacherous, with open water only a
hundred feet below the bridge site; but ice
would freeze to around three feet in thick-
ness by mid-January—mayke more.

Work went on apace throughout the cold
weather, and by mid-February the anchors
and cable bent piers on both sides of the
river had been excavated and first concrete,
40 cubic yards, had been poured in the
south anchor; the south main pier excava-

TWELFTH EDITION

Peace River Bridge, Alaska Highway

tions had been commenced, and at the main
pier sheet piling had been driven prepara-
tory to excavation. It was estimated the
first steel could be placed March 6th.

A spot some four hundred feet above the
bridge was chosen for the erection of the
boom tower, with the intention of skidding
the tower down to site of operations. As
March 2nd broke clear and cold, assembly
of this erection tower on the ice commenced.
Clear and cold days continued, “20 degrees
below at daybreak,” read the weather re-
ports, freezing all day. Setting up of steel
went on at the erection tower.

On March Sth the first column section
for one of the main towers of the great
bridge arrived.

On March 8th, erection tower set to top
of vertical steel, height 120 ft., and the re-
maining steel laid out to continue setting
tower top. Work was done in two shifts
of ten hours each. Warm-up periods, how-
ever, were necessary, for in the freezing
cold men’s fingers became numb even within
heavy gloves. Minor tribulations continu-
ally presented themselves, but nothing could
stop the progress of the bridge.

By the middle of March heavy reaction
girders had been set deep in the south an-
chorage, and on March 25th, with the aid
of four steam-powered derricks, the erec-
tion tower was slowly hauled across the ice
on a specially prepared skidway.

- Riveting started, as gusset plates were
fixed to steel sections lying on the shore,
and the chatter of pneumatic hammers

pee

rattled across the ice and faded into the dis-
tance beyond.

At 8 p.m. on March 27th, after a day
bright with sun, the boom on the ere tion
tower picked up the first section of the
south main tower and set it into position.
The great bridge had started skyward.

On April 2nd it started to rain and did
not cease until April 4th, but the weather
continued warm. Would the ice hold? Men
worked fast as they thought about it;
worked fast and forgot about it. The ice
grew weaker. “Heneycomb” ice appeared
on all surfaces, and in places where there
was trafic several inches of water formed
in the ruts. Would the ice hold? Men
worked feverishly all the iong day of April
5th and as dusk closed in with more rain
they knew the fight was won, for the main
tower stood against the gathering gloom, its
last section bolted into position, summing
up a victory in less than a dozen words; 700
tons of steel had been erected in 514 days
of work.

By April riveting was completed in the
south tower, 6,618 rivets. Bridgemen put an
erection frame atop the finished towers, and
prepared to string the high-line cables to
carry the tramways across the river from
tower top to tower top.

On the same day, April 11th, to the ac
companiment of splitting detonations, the
ice break-up began. Soon floes on the Pine
River, a tributary entering the Peace some
half-mile above the bridge site, were piling
up. Ice in the Peace itself held, but the

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