‘ THIS SHOULD NOT HAVE HAPPENED’
‘ THE IMPORTANCE OF THIS BRIDGE HAS BECOME EVIDENT TO ALL OF CANADA NOW.’ — MAYOR RICHARD HARVEY
Opened to traffic for less than two months, the new Nipigon River Bridge along the Trans- Canada Highway i n northwestern Ontario was hailed as a “monumental” achievement — part of the largest infrastructure investment in the province’s history.
Now, officials are dealing with an embarrassing engineering mishap with potentially huge economic implications. A section of the cable- supported bridge deck suddenly split apart and heaved upward by 60 centimetres or more on Sunday afternoon, temporarily shutting down the only road connecting western and eastern Canada in that part of the country.
Shortly after the bridge cleaved, two pickup trucks sailed over the hump and came crashing down like a scene out of the Dukes of Hazzard, witnesses said. No injuries were reported.
“This is obviously a national issue. This area has been identified as being a vulnerable part of the Canadian transportation sector,” Nipigon Mayor Richard Harvey said Monday.
“The importance of this bridge has become evident to all of Canada now.”
By Monday morning one lane of the bridge had reopened after engineers brought i n 160 concrete beams, each weighing 2,700 kilograms, to push the upended section of the steel bridge deck back into place, Harvey said.
Still, traffic crawled. For a time drivers either had to take a six- hour detour by crossing into the United States or wait it out at the local community centre or church. Some drivers attempted to use a rural logging road but got stuck in the snow.
It was unclear when the bridge would be fully reopened.
“It was an upsetting phone call to get,” said Michael Gravelle, Ontario’s minister of northern development and mines.
This section of the TransCanada Highway is an economic lifeline and the Nipigon River Bridge is supposed to be the region’s infrastructure “crown jewel,” he said.
“There i s no alternate route.”
Ashley Littlefield, a resident in nearby Dorion, Ont., said she and her husband were heading eastbound and approaching the bridge on Sunday when part of the bridge deck suddenly jacked up.
“Take your fingers and interlock them flat. And then lift one hand. That’s what it l ooked l i ke,” she said.
Her six- year- old daughter screamed: “The bridge is breaking!”
While t r yi ng to calm her daughter, Littlefield said she honked the horn to alert approaching westbound drivers to the hazard ahead. Her husband also got out and started waving his arms.
Two trucks still flew over and landed hard. There was no serious damage, she said.
As a forensic investigation got underway, locals wondered whether a change in the weather — temperatures plummeted this past weekend to - 30 C — was a contributing factor.
Doug Perovic, an engineering professor at the University of Toronto, said sudden temperature drops could have caused the cables to contract, putting stress on the connecting bolts.
Icing or freezing of the cables could also have made the cables less compliant or able to respond to other stressors, such as heavy gusts of wind.
Still, engineers build in margins of safety with any structure, Perovic said. And cable- supported bridges are a “tried-and-true” design.
So, something unusual happened here.
“This should not have happened — in capital letters.”
A spokesman for Hatch Mott MacDonald, the engineering firm overseeing the administration of the bridge project, declined to comment Monday.
The $ 106- million bridge, the first cable- stayed bridge to be built in Ontario, is part of what’s been touted as the largest infrastructure investment in the province’s history — more than $ 130 billion over 10 years.
THIS IS OBVIOUSLY A NATIONAL ISSUE.