Video: Simcoe Street bridge in Oshawa comes tumbling down

The Simcoe Street bridge over Highway 401 came tumbling down Saturday night – half of it, anyway – as crews worked through the night to demolish the westbound side of the bridge to make way for the widening of the highway.

The Simcoe Street bridge replacement is part of a series of bridge projects – the Albert Street overpass is next – on an agenda that will keep construction crews busy until November 2024.

The entire highway was closed from 9 p.m. Saturday to 9 a.m. Sunday to allow for the work to be completed, with the actual demolition starting about 11 p.m. Saturday.

It took six machines only about an hour to knock down the half of the structure, with clean-up and re-opening of the road taking up the rest of the road closure time.

Local resident Steve Elford, who took the cover picture for this story, called the demolition “interesting and fun” to watch. “Not something you see every day,” he said on the Downtown Oshawa Facebook page.

The scope of work for the construction will also include shoulder widening and resurfacing of the highway, construction of the Lviv Boulevard cul-de-sac and reconstruction of Lviv and Albert Street and Simcoe and Bloor Street intersections, installation of new storm sewers and watermain and the re-alignment of the Michael Starr Trail.

And finishing the demolition and re-construction of the overpass at Simcoe Street, of course, which will happen in late May to early June of 2024, said Anthony Lascalla of KIHL Construction Management. The entire Albert Street overpass demolition and re-construction will also take place during that time, with no access to the Albert Street bridge during the work, he added.

All work on the two new bridges is expected to be completed by the end of 2024/early 2025.

There will be road closures throughout the duration of the project and will be implemented during various stages as well as periodic nights and weekend lane closures on Highway 401 during the work.

The bridge demolition is part of highway widening happening on the 401 between Brock Road in Pickering and Courtice Road in Clarington. The provincial transportation ministry has hired Brennan Paving and Construction to replace both the Simcoe and Albert bridges over the highway.

Check out my full video of the Simcoe Street bridge demolition over the 401 this morning. #simcoestreet #oshawa #bridge #demolition pic.twitter.com/h7ddTnP5gC

— Colin Williamson (@ColinWxchaser) July 23, 2023