CBCL Wins 2025 ACEC-NL Engineering Excellence Award for Humber Road Overpasses Bearing Replacement

CBCL Limited is honoured to be recognized with the 2025 ACEC-NL Award for Engineering Excellence for our leadership and innovation on the Humber Road Overpasses Bearing Replacement project in Corner Brook, Newfoundland and Labrador.

This critical infrastructure project highlighted technical innovation, complex structural rehabilitation, and a commitment to sustainable, community-focused solutions.

In 2022, bearing failures were identified causing vertical displacements on the Westbound Humber Road Overpass, one of two parallel three-span, curved, post-tensioned voided slab structures in Corner Brook. These bridges are essential for local commuters, the nearby Pulp and Paper Mill, and tourists visiting via the nearby cruise ship port each year.

CBCL was engaged by The Newfoundland Department of Transportation and Infrastructure (NLDTI) to assess the structure’s condition, mitigate immediate risk, and develop a durable, long-term solution that avoided full replacement of the structures.

CBCL approached the project with a deeply analytical and adaptive strategy, deploying advanced 3D Finite Element Analysis (FEA) and field investigations to evaluate the behavior of these complex structures.

The structures’ unusual nature—with long central spans, short end spans, and a curved alignment—resulted in unique uplift conditions at each bearing with forces reaching up to 1150 kN, introducing challenging fatigue conditions, far above original design assumptions. Interesting aspects of the design solution included:

• Changing the bearing orientations at the abutments to reduce uplift force demands and ensure the existing pier bearings could remain in place.
• Custom-fabricated restrainer bolts and anchor rods up to 165 mm in diameter to meet fatigue demands.
• A complex jacking procedure to both lift, and hold-down the structure simultaneously to reinstate the structure in its original position. Over 100,000 lbs was placed above Bearing #4, the bearing with the largest uplift demands. Bearing #4  has an assembled mass of approximately 2100 kg and a height of approximately 890 mm, resulting in the largest bearing assembly ever constructed in Newfoundland.

The Humber Road Overpass Rehabilitation project demonstrates how innovative engineering can address complex bridge rehabilitation challenges. The project’s success showcases the design team’s technical expertise and commitment to pushing conventional boundaries, ensuring the long-term safety and sustainability of critical infrastructure. We are very proud to have worked closely with NLDTI and other key contributors including Complete Concrete Solutions (contractor), The Ganawa Company Ltd (bearing manufacturer) and Entuitive Corporation (bearing assembly designers) on the successful completion of this project.