seismic vulnerability
left no other option.
The $105 million proj-
ect was awarded to
PCL Constructors Westcoast Inc., the largest
contracting organization in Canada with vast
experience building large scale bridges across
North America. WSP Canada Group did the
design, as did Hardesty & Hanover.
Community interest in the bridge grew from
the onset of construction. Completed in the
“fish bowl” of downtown Victoria around the
existing Johnson Street Bridge, there was a
live stream web cam set up for the public to
view progress at any time. 900 Victorians re-
ceived new short-term jobs, not to mention
the half of a billion dollars expected to be gen-
erated from the economic development from
the project.
COMPLEX PROJECT
But perhaps the most unique element to the
construction was watching the bridge’s mas-
sive steel pieces coming into the harbour from
places like China, France and Belgium. An
infrastructure specialist with over 25 years’
experience in North America and Europe in
both government and private sector organi-
zations, Huggett offers a unique perspective.
“I’ve worked on projects as big as $4 billion,
whereas this project was ‘only’ $100 million,
but it was one of the most complex projects
that you could ever imagine,” says Huggett.
First, Huggett remarks, it was one of the first
JULY 2018 | BUSINESS ELITE CANADA 5
