VIDEO: Mississauga LRT project marks Canada’s first use of Verona System
July 11, 2023
By CCE
The process prevented disruptions to GO Train service.
The push box was built in an open space before being placed under existing tracks. Photo courtesy Metrolinx.
In a first for Canada, the project team building Metrolinx’s Hazel McCallion light-rail transit (LRT) line in Mississauga, Ont., has used the Verona System engineering technique to create a concrete passageway ‘push box’ (see video below).
The team in question, Mobilinx, is an urban transportation infrastructure consortium that includes consulting engineering firms Exp, Morrison Hershfield, Arcadis and IBI Group, among other companies. As the project’s constructor, Mobilinx is mandated to design, build, finance, operate and maintain the Hazel McCallion line.
The team built the 46-m long, approximately 6,000-tonne push box, which includes a partition wall to separate vehicles travelling in opposite directions, in an open area before placing it under the existing Lakeshore West rail tracks at Port Credit GO Station. To get it into position, crews used a ‘box-jacking’ approach, pushing it underneath the tracks while excavation work cleared a path for it. This process prevented disruptions to GO Train service along the Lakeshore West line.
The team had created three temporary modular bridges to support each of three street-level tracks during the process. They will now remove these structures and transfer train loads to the top of the push box.
“This is the first time this innovative technique, designed by Petrucco, has been deployed in Canada,” said Mobilinx assistant project manager Gavin Lobo.
