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Bridge Damage at Nipigon Closes Hwy 17 – NO Travel through Northern Ontario

The highway is open again. This report from Thunder Bay newswatch indicates that a solution has been found. The item is reproduced under the Fair Dealing provisions of the Copyright Act.

UPDATE: Single lane of Nipigon bridge opened to traffic

Jon Thompson, tbnewswatch.com
By tbnewswatch.com
NIPIGON, Ont. -- Seventeen hours after an expansion joint split on the new Nipigon River Bridge, Trans-Canada traffic is flowing again.

The Ontario Provincial Police opened the eastbound lane of the month-old, cable-stayed bridge to traffic before 9 a.m. Monday.

Bolts holding the girder to the bearing on an expansion joint broke on the bridge’s north side at 3:05 p.m. Sunday. When the bolts released, the cables staying the bridge tightened to support it, raising it about 60 centimetres.

Early Monday morning, engineers weighed down the bridge with 110 concrete blocks weighing 2,721 kilograms each.

Ministry of Transportation area contracts engineer Gary Weiss said safety was paramount in engineering modeling. He’s confident the added weight will serve as a temporary solution until the cause of the failure can be determined.

“The one great thing about this bridge is its very flexible and a lot of redundancies are built into this bridge. When things move, they look worse than what they really are,” Weiss said.

“When we built this bridge, we built it so it’s not flat the whole time. We built it on a curve so that the weight brings it back down and comes to rest on the bearings.”

Minister of Northern Development and Mines Michael Gravelle was on site Monday morning. He praised construction efforts that made the bridge passible more quickly than expected. 

“Clearly, we need to understand what happened. Clearly we need to get in place measures so we can ensure it doesn’t happen again,” he said.

“Today, I’m focusing on the rather extraordinary work that has been done by the engineers and the construction people who have been able to get the traffic lane open for all traffic.

‘When this happened, there wasn’t any assurance – let alone clarity – this would be happening with in a 17 hour time frame.”

The new bridge was opened to traffic on Nov. 29 and represents half of a $106-million construction Gravelle has called the “crown jewel” of highway twinning between Thunder Bay and Nipigon.

Demolition has begun on the remaining two lanes of the old highway. The MTO expects construction will be complete in 2017.

- mod edit to add link -
 
Ah, of course, SOP #27: If bridge goes wonky, just add a quarter million pounds of concrete and carry on as if normal. :)
 
daftandbarmy said:
Ah, of course, SOP #27: If bridge goes wonky, just add a quarter million pounds of concrete and carry on as if normal. :)

Actually more than half a million pounds (110 x 2721 kg =299,310 kg = 659,865.60lbs) of concrete...or 299.31t....
 
NFLD Sapper said:
Actually more than half a million pounds (110 x 2721 kg =299,310 kg = 659,865.60lbs) of concrete...or 299.31t....

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is one reason why Daftandbarmy is in the Infantry :)
 
cupper said:
This is going to result in a huge hit for the general contractor and any subs that ultimately are found responsible. And the insurance companies are hurt everyone.

I wouldn't be to sure about that. My understanding is that the contractor is responsible for any repairs up one year after handover. Once that one year is up, they are no longer responsible. 
 
When I first read the headline I thought it said brain damage. After I read the article I realized that I might not have been far wrong in my first assessment.
 
Retired AF Guy said:
I wouldn't be to sure about that. My understanding is that the contractor is responsible for any repairs up one year after handover. Once that one year is up, they are no longer responsible.

Perhaps that may be true, but the scandal that this may do to their "name" may be enough.
 
Typical NW Ontario jerry rig maneuver bad-aid fix for the broken bridge.  The full fix is going to be a mess, but because of the cold it won't be practical to start any real work until at least end of March.  Not surprised this happened back home; the area has been LONG neglected by the provincial/federal governments and then when they do something it is ALWAYS done wrong.  This time it got Canada's attention...

From the MTO, Load limits are 63,500 kg and wide loads are limited to 4m.

They already commenced demolition prep of the old span, writing it off for backup usage.  They assumed wrongly the new bridge was good to go without letting it go through a proper winter's torture before condemning the old span.  Winters are damn cold there and I don't miss them.

From the local gossip back home, the logging roads that would normally be used to circumvent this type of closure are impassable due to snow and cars that tried this are stuck/trapped.  If you aren't familiar with the area, and the bridge is forced to close again; I do NOT recommend attempting the logging road option.
 
ModlrMike said:
When I first read the headline I thought it said brain damage. After I read the article I realized that I might not have been far wrong in my first assessment.

Whew...so I wasn't the only one!  ;)
 
donaldk said:
From the MTO, Load limits are 63,500 kg and wide loads are limited to 4m.

Although I'm not familiar with Ontario's regulations, this does not seem to me to be any reduction from normal permitted highway loads.

I know from previous experience that typical semi-trailer loads in Nova Scotia run 63 tons for standard trailer, and 72 tons for B-Trains. Standard highway loads in the Eastern US run 48 tons max.
 
In some parts of Ontario they allow a double road train (tractor + 2x 53 footers = max length 130ft?).  I have seen them rolling through T-bay last summer with a wow and wtf at the same time (probably used the 11 from T.O., as the 17 east of Tbay would be a PITA to haul that).
 
donaldk said:
In some parts of Ontario they allow a double road train (tractor + 2x 53 footers = max length 130ft?).  I have seen them rolling through T-bay last summer with a wow and wtf at the same time (probably used the 11 from T.O., as the 17 east of Tbay would be a PITA to haul that).

They are quite common, especially on the prairies....
 
With the development of the "Ring of Fire" in Northwestern Ontario, I am wondering what steps are being made to open up that region for better development.  Would a highway constructed North of Lake Nipigon not be a good plan?  I am sure such a route would cut a minimum of two hours off a trip from Timmins to Dryden.  It would also solve a problem of "one bridge destroyed effectively being capable of cutting Canada in half".
 
George Wallace said:
With the development of the "Ring of Fire" in Northwestern Ontario, I am wondering what steps are being made to open up that region for better development. 
The Ring of Fire needs enhanced north-south infrastructure more than east-west for the moment.

George Wallace said:
Would a highway constructed North of Lake Nipigon not be a good plan?  I am sure such a route would cut a minimum of two hours off a trip from Timmins to Dryden.  It would also solve a problem of "one bridge destroyed effectively being capable of cutting Canada in half".
Maybe, but we're talking building about 500 km of highway in the bush (see attached for VERY rough routing), running near a provincial park.  That's loads of money*, loads of process, and a road less populated than Highway 11.  All this in ridings with a very, very, very small proportion of voters, both provincially and federally.

Also, a whole lot of people driving from one part of Canada to another already drive through the U.S. instead of along the Trans-Canada, so it's not really a huge imposition - yet.

Until the need presses the voting nerve of 416/905 (how much more will they pay for stuff delivered by truck, especially in these "just in time delivery" systems?), nothing approaching that scale would ever be considered. 

It's probably easier building a by-pass road closer to where the current bridge is, but even that amount of money has to be wrenched from a system that doesn't know where Nipigon is.

* - If you believe World Bank figures, adjusted for inflation since 2010, let's round off to a very-ballpark estimate of $1M per kilometre.
 
milnews.ca said:
The Ring of Fire needs enhanced north-south infrastructure more than east-west for the moment.
Maybe, but we're talking building about 500 km of highway in the bush (see attached for VERY rough routing), running near a provincial park.  That's loads of money*, loads of process, and a road less populated than Highway 11.  All this in ridings with a very, very, very small proportion of voters, both provincially and federally.

Also, a whole lot of people driving from one part of Canada to another already drive through the U.S. instead of along the Trans-Canada, so it's not really a huge imposition - yet.

Until the need presses the voting nerve of 416/905 (how much more will they pay for stuff delivered by truck, especially in these "just in time delivery" systems?), nothing approaching that scale would ever be considered. 

It's probably easier building a by-pass road closer to where the current bridge is, but even that amount of money has to be wrenched from a system that doesn't know where Nipigon is.

* - If you believe World Bank figures, adjusted for inflation since 2010, let's round off to a very-ballpark estimate of $1M per kilometre.

The easy solution is to upgrade the bush road that runs around the two lakes (Helen Lake and Polly Lake) to the North of the Bridge and put in a gravel road that is passable by trucks and motor vehicles.  It would require bridging the Nipigon River but a simple bailey bridge would probably suffice.  Keep the road plowed in the winter time and properly graded and the costs would probably be minimal.





 
milnews.ca said:
The Ring of Fire needs enhanced north-south infrastructure more than east-west for the moment.
Maybe, but we're talking building about 500 km of highway in the bush (see attached for VERY rough routing), running near a provincial park.  That's loads of money*, loads of process, and a road less populated than Highway 11.  All this in ridings with a very, very, very small proportion of voters, both provincially and federally.

Also, a whole lot of people driving from one part of Canada to another already drive through the U.S. instead of along the Trans-Canada, so it's not really a huge imposition - yet.

Until the need presses the voting nerve of 416/905 (how much more will they pay for stuff delivered by truck, especially in these "just in time delivery" systems?), nothing approaching that scale would ever be considered. 

It's probably easier building a by-pass road closer to where the current bridge is, but even that amount of money has to be wrenched from a system that doesn't know where Nipigon is.

* - If you believe World Bank figures, adjusted for inflation since 2010, let's round off to a very-ballpark estimate of $1M per kilometre.

You could cut the corner and go from Nipigon to Upsala, a much shorter build and still carve a good hunk out of that godawful drive.
 
$1M per km would be a good price for the Upsala bypass route (Ontario does have a hypothetical plan for it on file).  The current twinning work requires an insane amount of blasting as it is all hard bed rock up there.
 
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