BELLEVUE, WA  T.Y. Lin International won top honors in Washington's 49th annual Engineering Excellence Awards for their design and project leadership role in construction of the Port Mann Bridge in Vancouver, British Columbia. The awards are sponsored by the Washington State chapter of the American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC), and this year ACEC Washington honored 42 projects representing a wide range of engineering achievements and demonstrating the highest degree of skill and ingenuity. The top five awards - one Platinum and four Gold - will go on to compete in the ACEC national competition in Washington, D.C. in April.

Platinum Award - Structural Systems
T.Y. Lin International - Structural Systems - Port Mann Bridge/Highway 1 Project
Client - Transportation Investment Corporation

As chief design engineer for the cable-stayed signature bridge and design manager for the overall Port Mann Bridge Project, T.Y. Lin International (TYLI) worked closely with contractor, Kiewit-Flatiron Partnership (K-F), and project owner, Transportation Investment Corporation, to build the new bridge which is the centerpiece of the Port Mann Bridge/Highway1 Improvement Project, the largest transportation infrastructure project in the Province's history.

Replacing an older, inefficient structure, the design-build Port Mann Bridge project includes the 10-lane, 850-meter-long bridge crossing the Fraser River, plus a 350-meter-long south approach and an 820-meter-long north approach. Its 470-meter-long main span, 190-meter-long side spans, and 52-meter-wide deck make PMB the largest main span crossing in western Canada, North America's second-longest cable-stayed bridge, and one of the world's widest bridges.

The older bridge that the Port Mann Bridge replaced was a five-lane steel-tied-arch bridge that was a pioneering achievement when it was built in the 1960s, but it had become a bottleneck in the rapidly growing region's critical transportation network, carrying some 100,000 vehicles a day, creating horrible traffic jams and impacting the local economy. The old bridge also lacked essential seismic structural features in this high earthquake-prone region.

The new bridge has two separate five-lane deck structures supported by a single central pylon, and the twin decks are separated by a 10-meter median where two distinctive, 163-meter-high single mast concrete towers as well as the central pylons are located. This unique superstructure supports 10 lanes instead of the five lanes originally envisioned. There also is a barrier-separated three-meter-wide bicycle/pedestrian path on the east flank.

To alleviate traffic congestion and allow tolling to begin on the bridge as quickly as possible, PMB opened in two phases. Phase 1 opened eight traffic lanes a year earlier than planned, then Phase 2 opened the final two lanes and the multi-use path, completing the project on time and on budget in August 2015.

The Port Mann Bridge now helps reduce travel time for drivers by as much as 50 percent, or up to one hour of drive time each day. The value of the anticipated travel time and operating cost savings is estimated to have a present value of more than $5 billion (Canadian) over a 35-year operating period.  The bridge also introduces new transportation alternatives, including transit, cycling and walking.

Marked by the clean profile, the two elegant towers, and the radiating sweep of the four planes of stay cables, the new bridge is a breathtakingly beautiful structure that has generated a profound visual impact on the local landscape and woven itself into Greater Vancouver's urban fabric. Greg Johnson, owner Transportation Investment Corporation, commended TYLI, "for their outstanding work on the seismically-resilient, visually-stunning bridge"¦The success of this project was made possible in large part by the intensive, positive coordination and collaboration that took place throughout the life of the project."