Trans-Canada Hghwy in Ont closed indefinitely

[BC_Explorer]

For those who may be traveling the Trans-Canada highway in the near future...

A newly constructed bridge in northern Ontario has reportedly split apart in the cold, closing the Trans-Canada highway — the only road connecting Eastern and Western Canada — indefinitely.

CBC News link

[paulj]

Newer reports talk about testing bolts. I'm guessing they are part of the linkage that holds that end of bridge down and lined up with the expansion joint. The temporary solution is a pile of concrete blocks on the uplifted end, leaving one lane open for traffic.

The bridge is only 2/3 done - 2 out of three towers and cable sets, plus half of the planned 4 lanes. It's been open for only a few months. They took out the old bridge to make room for the rest of the new bridge. I wonder if this staged opening was part of the cause of the failure.

Good video

http://www.cbc.ca/player/play/2681721506/

[paulj]

When I ask Google Maps for a route from Toronto to Winnipeg it gives me 2 routes - via Chicago and via Thunderbay. The Chicago route is an hour faster. Even the route across UP Michigan is as fast as the route around the north side of Lake Superior. Pick a point further west and the US routes become even more attractive.

And a lot of commerce must travel by rail, either with an all Canada route or a partial US one. There's a lot of Vancouver bound rail traffic in the Seattle area.

Still the news reports are that:

About 1,300 trucks cross the bridge in Nipigon, Ont., every day, moving about $100 million worth of goods across Canada daily.

Yes, that's about 1 per minute (counting both directions). I wonder how seasonal that is.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/thunder-bay/nipigon-river-bridge-trucking-industry-1.3401643
says that red-tape since 9/11 has made the US route more difficult.

The $106-million bridge project replaced Nipigon's old two-lane structure with a four-lane one. It opened about two months ago, but won't be fully completed until 2017.

[almcc]

As usual, the news folks and special interest groups have overblown the story. Yes, that bridge is a bottleneck but anyone who has traveled in northern Ontario during the "construction season" is also faced with (many!) single lane traffic and stoplight situations across bridges being renewed. If the stats are correct, less than a truck a minute on average travels that section. We've been up there in the shoulder seasons and sometimes you don't see a single vehicle for a minute or two at a time. I expect that there is no effect on commerce.

[John___Angela]

dewey02 wrote:

John & Angela wrote:
Its open again. One lane only.

http://ici.radio-canada.ca/breve/41281/ontario-reouverture-pont-riviere-nipigon

Je ne parle pas francais. 🙂

🙂 You did pretty good. 🙂

[Little_Kopit]

dewey02 wrote:

John & Angela wrote:
Its open again. One lane only.

http://ici.radio-canada.ca/breve/41281/ontario-reouverture-pont-riviere-nipigon

Je ne parle pas francais. 🙂

I solved that one for you, who at least troubled to look up a few words en francais. I gave you links to CBC news page articles. Living where you do I'd think you'd know to check CBC webpages for news without help. After all the CBC track record for fact checking before releasing a story item is one of the best, if not the best, in the world.

So, the moral: key in and save www.cbc.ca/news Use when you want Canadian updates.

:R

[dewey02]

John & Angela wrote:
Its open again. One lane only.

http://ici.radio-canada.ca/breve/41281/ontario-reouverture-pont-riviere-nipigon

Je ne parle pas francais. 🙂

[paulj]

According to the news reports this is a cable stayed bridge, and the split, or rather displacement, is at one end, where the bridge meets the abutment - in other words at an expansion joint. The bridge was never connected to the abutment - by design.

Often displacements like this are the result of support piers/pilings shifting, either due to erosion or dumping (the recent Delaware freeway bridge case). But a cable stayed bridge would not have piers close to this end.

One witness talked of a gust of wind blowing the end of the bridge up in the air, followed by it settling back down (but not all the way). That reminds me of wind loading issues with a Tacoma narrow bridge. But since there was a sudden cold snap as well, I suspect steel cable contraction might have had something to do with it. The exposed cables would have contracted faster than the bridge deck.

Cable stayed bridges are common around the world. Vancouver has several new ones of that type. But most are in milder climates.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/thunder-bay/nipigon-river-bridge-bolts-1.3399777

Talks of bolts snaping, but also about things like cable contraction.

[Little_Kopit]

Another update: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nipigon-river-bridge-numbers-1.3398986

:C

[v10superduty]

Fizz wrote:
You would think it impossible.
A bottleneck in the middle of the country.
No alternate route.
Sad, sad, sad

From Nipigon east, Hwy's 11 and 17 split offering 2 routes. From the area of this bridge westerly till Shabaqua (about 175 KMs) 11 & 17 are one and the same. They split again and rejoin at Kenora and from kenora to Manitoba boder are again only one route. And its all only 2 lanes up here with a few passing lanes on the uphills occasionally.

We have had wash outs from rain, bad crashes, bridge failures, fires, close ALL east-west traffic across Canada for periods of a few hours to many days.

It is sad and an embarrassment that we get only 2 lanes and you guys get what, 10 lanes on your 400 series hwys.
Still wouldn't trade you though... :B

[Little_Kopit]

Update in English http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/thunder-bay/nipigon-bridge-transcanada-update-1.3398207 & recaps going back a good 24 hours or more.

:C

[John___Angela]

Its open again. One lane only.

http://ici.radio-canada.ca/breve/41281/ontario-reouverture-pont-riviere-nipigon

[JaxDad]

agesilaus wrote:
Some engineering company is sweating it...LOL

According to the scuttle-butt from a friend who is up there flying at the moment there was a pretty wild weather change just before sunset.

In one hour the temperature dropped 30 deg. F. and the wind went from nearly calm to about 25 mph with gusts of over 45 mph.

The contraction rate must have been phenomenal.

[Fizz]

You would think it impossible.
A bottleneck in the middle of the country.
No alternate route.
Sad, sad, sad

[agesilaus]

Some engineering company is sweating it...LOL