AAL bridges the gap for Victoria, British Columbia

AAL completes shipment of iconic Johnson Street Bridge replacement The multipurpose shipping sector’s most highly decorated carrier, AAL, has successfully completed the transport and discharge of the replacement structure for the iconic Johnson Street Bridge in Victoria, British Columbia – shipped from Shanghai along the carrier’s popular Pacific Service (Connecting North Asia and The Americas), aboard its 31,000dwt A-Class vessel, the AAL Singapore and for leading freight forwarder, Deugro.

At 42.7m in length, 18.6m wide, and 4.1m tall the bridge section is the largest component of the biggest single-leaf bascule bridge in Canada and one of the largest in the world. When the new bridge officially opens in March 2018 it will create a new historic structure and destination within Victoria’s Inner Harbour. The architect who designed the original Johnson Street Bridge, Joseph Strauss, would later go on to design the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. Tanya Britton, AAL’s Chief Representative for AAL In Canada commented, ‘The new Johnson Street Bridge represents a new era of connectivity into Victoria’s downtown. It will improve safety and accessibility with more than 50 per cent of its deck space dedicated to pedestrians and cyclists, in addition to providing three lanes for motor vehicles.’

Britton added, “Featuring side mounted cranes that offer combined lifting of up to 700mt, our A-Class was the perfect partner for this very challengingly-shaped cargo that presented a number of demands in terms of engineering, crane capacity and overall deck space requirement. Supported by our in-house engineering specialists and their experience of working on oversized and specialist cargo shipments, we completed the delivery of this high value cargo on schedule and budget.” AAL’s specialist mpp fleet is the market’s youngest and combines extreme lifting capability (700mt) with leading in-take capacity, with tonnage ranging from 19,000 to 33,000dwt. Through a unique triad of award-winning services – Chartering, Liner Services and Semi-Liner Services – it serves the 24/7 demands of global oil & gas, renewable energy, agriculture, mining, forestry, and construction sector project customers.