Rain stalls completion of Kamloops’ Overlanders Bridge

KAMLOOPS – With only days until its scheduled completion, Mother Nature has thrown a wrench in the Overlanders Bridge construction plans.

“We’re almost there!” Transportation coordinator Colleen Lepik says, noting that, unfortunately, rain in the forecast has delayed completion of the construction project a few days past the original Oct. 31 target.

“The actual date sort of depends how long the rain holds up. The weather is supposed to break early next week,” Lepik says.

She says all of the paving on both the north and south approach roads is now complete and roughly 75 per cent of the bridge deck itself is paved. The remainder of the bridge needs to be sprayed with waterproofing before its paved but surfaces needs to be dry before the asphaslt goes down.

Lepik says in addition to extra crews, contractors have brought in compressors to try to dry off the bridge deck during breaks in the weather.

Once the bridge is open to four lanes of traffic, crews will remain on site to remove the scaffolding and complete cleanup. Most of this will be done at night.

Lepik says the good news is the delay will not affect the project’s $10.3-million bottom line.

“This doesn’t change the budget at all.”

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