Those who follow my blog know there’s a constant and festering burr under my saddle about the exorbitant lengths of time it takes to complete road construction, anywhere. I’ve already vented about the two-year fiasco called maintaining the Gardiner Expressway in Toronto (Gardiner Expressway problem solved) and just last week about the subway versus above-ground transportation networks (More fiddle faddle on infrastructure). After working for thirty years in the construction industry, it always amazed me that it takes three times longer to modify three kilometers of highway than it does to erect and completely finish a thirty-story office building. The contractors altering the relatively short span of Queen’s Quay West in Toronto took three (3!!!) years.

Today my little old Boomer heart sang with joy when I viewed a video sent to me by my friend Perry at KMA Contracting Inc. in Guelph, Ontario. The time-lapse video showed a concrete bridge spanning ten lanes of traffic over Highway 401 at Fountain Street in Cambridge being demolished in a mere 9.5 hours by Priestly Demolition Inc. See guys. It can be done. All it takes is some brains and a bit of smart planning. Bring in all the labour and equipment you can muster and get the job done—fast.

Congratulations to Priestly Demolition. Maybe we should put their engineers and planners to work on the Gardiner and Toronto’s transit system. It can be done. Hope you enjoy this as much as I did.  Click here to see Priestly Demolition’s approach to civil work.