British Columbia selects Road Zipper for Alex Fraser Bridge

The western Canadian province of British Columbia has signed a deal with Lindsay for deployment of the company’s Road Zipper on the Alex Fraser Bridge The Bridge connects Richmond and New Westminster with North Delta in the Greater Vancouver area. The moveable barrier replaces a static concrete barrier in an attempt to increase traffic flow during peak periods. The Alex Fraser Bridge joins other bridges around the world, such as the Benjamin Franklin Bridge over the Delaware River in the US, that now us
April 4, 2018 Read time: 2 mins
The western Canadian province of British Columbia has signed a deal with 2438 Lindsay for deployment of the company’s Road Zipper on the Alex Fraser Bridge


The Bridge connects Richmond and New Westminster with North Delta in the Greater Vancouver area. The moveable barrier replaces a static concrete barrier in an attempt to increase traffic flow during peak periods.

The Alex Fraser Bridge joins other bridges around the world, such as the Benjamin Franklin Bridge over the Delaware River in the US, that now use a zipper to change lane directions.

Lindsay’s Road Zipper system consists of T-shaped moveable barriers connected to form a continuous wall. Using a conveyor wheel system, the Road Zipper vehicle repositions the barrier system at up to 16kph, creating a moveable ‘zipper lane’.

On the Alex Fraser Bridge, it creates four lanes northbound and three lanes southbound during morning rush hour. At all other times, there will be four lanes southbound and three lanes northbound.

The Alex Fraser Bridge opened in 1986 and was designed to allow for the number of lanes to be increased. At first, only four of the six lanes were used for vehicles. As traffic increased, pedestrian and cycling lanes were moved to the perimeter of the bridge so that all six lanes could be used for vehicles.

British Columbia’s transport department will now re-stripe the lanes, This will add a seventh lane along with the new counter-flow moveable barrier system to improve capacity and help reduce traffic congestion during rush hour.

An average of 119,000 vehicles move across the bridge every day. Officials say motorists could save six minutes on their morning (northbound) commute and up to 16 minutes during the afternoon rush hour (southbound).

“Predicting traffic flow can be difficult – particularly if you’re looking 20 or 30 years into the future. The key to any design is building in as much flexibility as possible from the beginning, so you can efficiently accommodate the needs of a growing population,” said Chris Sanders, senior vice president of Lindsay Transportation Solutions.

Lindsay, based in the US state of Nebraska, said that its revenue from the contract will be around US$14 million.

Road Markings, Barriers & Workzone Protection

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • LED road studs provide tunnel guidance
    February 10, 2012
    Safety in tunnels is of paramount importance, and in 2014 the European Union will be introducing new safety rules for such structures. As in other parts of the world, many tunnels under construction will be built to high standards incorporating the latest technologies. Many others are being upgraded, including the Elbetunnel, Hamburg, Germany, where the first tunnel under the River Elbe was built in 1911.
    Read More
  • The drive for US road funding: will corporate America get a seat?
    September 13, 2017
    Trumponomics aims to use public money for pump-priming an even greater amount of cash from the private sector to improve America’s crumbling roads. But is political will matching corporate America’s enthusiasm for more private investment, asks David Arminas If there were ever a test case for comparing public-private partnerships and design-build contracts, the recently completed Ohio River Bridges Project is it (see previous article).
    Read More
  • Poetry in motion
    August 9, 2018
    A heavy-lift operation by Roll-iT using Enerpac equipment delivered a bridge deck - with a poem engraved on the underside - to Antwerp’s old harbour Only when the deck of the new Londenbrug Bridge is raised do travellers see the poem by Antwerp poet Stijn Vranken. It is written large on the underside of the 300tonne prefabricated steel deck. People waiting for a ship to pass the raised bridge now contemplate the poem’s message about ships transporting goods and people to and from the four corners of the
    Read More
  • ACE/AECOM report: private sector and user-pay for English roads
    May 14, 2018
    It’s one minute to midnight for funding England’s roads, according to a timely new report, and the clock’s big hand is pointing to some form of user-pay solution, reports David Arminas Is there any way out of future user-pay funding for England’s highway infrastructure? The answer is a resounding ‘no’, according to the recently published report: Funding Roads for the Future. The brief 25-page document by the London-based Association for Consultancy and Engineering, ACE**, sums up the state of England’s ro
    Read More

Highlighted Content