The Evergreen Line Rapid Transit Project consists of 11 km of advanced light rail transit that will connect with and extend TransLink’s existing SkyTrain systems to the northeast sector of Metro Vancouver from Lougheed Town Centre in Burnaby, through Port Moody, to Douglas College in Coquitlam.

The project includes elevated and at-grade guideways, a 2-km bored tunnel, seven stations, power substations, train operating systems, parking facilities, and a vehicle storage and light maintenance facility. The alignment navigates existing roadways, CPR tracks, and water crossings, with an incline ranging from one to six per cent through challenging ground conditions.

Armtec was responsible for manufacturing the elevated, precast segmental guideway superstructure, including the set-up of the precast yard. Armtec used 1,005 double-track span-by-span segments that were manufactured in short-line match cast moulds.

There were many challenges presented in this project, from extensive documentation requirements to extremely tight tolerances with very high quality expectations in a compressed timeframe. 

There were many ‘firsts’ for both the Richmond EP team and the General Contractor including:

• The design and its thousands of drawings and revisions were created by a third party from out of country
• GC staff of 6 was full-time in the Richmond plant throughout production
• The maximum number of segments (14) that the truss could hold was designed and successfully fabricated and post-tensioned
• Armtec fabricated the first 80m tight radius curve in precast concrete (instead of steel)    

Columns have been completed on North Road as well as elevated guideway construction. The project will be fully integrated with the existing SkyTrain system with completion scheduled for 2016.