Bridge closure blocks Trans-Canada highway

[Derek 2.0]

Thought I'd post this here, as opposed to Politics (which this will touch upon):

Damage to a newly built bridge cut traffic on the Trans-Canada Highway in both directions Sunday and it wasn’t clear when it could reopen, says the mayor of a Northern Ontario community.

Nipigon Mayor Richard Harvey said engineers are examining the Nipigon River Bridge on Highway 11/17 to determine the extent of the damage and how it happened.

If this is closed for a while, I'm wondering what type of hit this will have on the economy?

It goes on to mention:

“This is something that, in our emergency preparedness in this area, we have run scenarios for and we do have options on how we would fairly quickly get traffic moving if there is a more serious issue,” he said.

“There are alternate routes that we could, with a little bit of work, open up to get at least some traffic moving again.”

I'm wondering if they mean a barge ferry?? A train shuttling transport trucks???

None the less, this effectively cuts Canada into two for road traffic, and no doubt with have an impact on goods shipped by truck, that will have to cross the border twice.......I wonder if money will be forthcoming from the Federal Government.........

[The_Squid]

terrorism?

[Derek 2.0]

terrorism?

Poor construction/design and cold weather........and I thought they screwed up the new Port Mann.

[The_Squid]

haa! Falling ice smashing windshields and causing traffic mayhem was pretty bad....

[bush_cheney2004]

How big a deal is it ? Isn't there much more north-south traffic within Canada and to the USA border anyway ? Economically, that's why the Trans Canada Highway has not received massive infrastructure investment over the years.

[GostHacked]

It's not the only route. But they are kind of out of the way. Got to go farther north.

[Boges]

Well anyone who is driving from one end of Canada to the other would go through the US at that portion. But some people can't enter the US, so they need an option I suppose.

Shows how loosely connected Canada really is. Most of Ontario and Manitoba might as well be 5,000 kms a part.

[overthere]

It's not the only route. But they are kind of out of the way. Got to go farther north.

I though this was the only all weather east-west road in Canada at this point, which makes it vulnerable .

This happened on the Alaska Highway many years ago. They put an ice bridge in on the river while the main bridge was repaired.

[bush_cheney2004]

Mapquest driving directions gives three routes for Toronto to Winnipeg...two go through the USA. But driving times are all about the same.

http://www.mapquest.com/directions/from/canada/ontario/yyz-toronto-pearson-international-airport-16208173/to/canada/manitoba/ywg-winnipeg-james-a-richardson-international-airport-24436016

[August1991]

How big a deal is it ? Isn't there much more north-south traffic within Canada and to the USA border anyway ? Economically, that's why the Trans Canada Highway has not received massive infrastructure investment over the years.

I reckon that it's more symbolic than economic - but to be partisan, symbolism is what Trudeau Jnr and Wynne are all about.

Couillard at least seems connected to reality.

Sir John A built a railway across Canada, and Gordon Lightfoot wrote a song about it.

=====

For those who care, the bridge is cable-suspended. It's a "modern" construction; Boston famously has one (the Bunker Hill) and Montreal now has two and we're about to have two more. Using modern materials, they're cheap to build and I suspect that in this case, the engineers/marketing people pushed the envelope.

Years ago, I used to rent a dacha in Italy near a street named "Pontevecchio". (There are zillions of places in Italy named Ponte Vecchio; there's even one in Florence.) Then I learned that the bridge near my rental was built in 100 AD. They don't build them now like they used to build them.

Before you think that's a good thing, think of the sacrifice of these people (very poor) 2000 years ago to build a bridge for (very rich) people today.

Edited January 13, 2016 by August1991

[bush_cheney2004]

I reckon that it's more symbolic than economic - but to be partisan, symbolism is what Trudeau Jnr and Wynne are all about.

My understanding is that this bridge project was a provincial matter and another in a string of Liberal party infrastructure failures. The government would not permit some pylons to be used because of the impact on fish and other critters. Kinda makes that old rickety Ambassador Bridge to Detroit look much better over the long haul.

We had one of these new-fangled cable-stayed bridges fail in Minneapolis back in 2012. Cables became detached from wind induced cable vibrations and cracked support plates.

Edited January 13, 2016 by bush_cheney2004

[waldo]

Economically, that's why the Trans Canada Highway has not received massive infrastructure investment over the years.

huh! Based on what assessment? Huge portions of the highway have recently undergone twinning... that stretch through Alberta mountains was no small undertaking. This bridge... not yet actually completed... is a part of the twinning undertaking throughout Ontario. But hey, we could have some fun here if you really want to talk deficits in infrastructure... notably those in the U.S.. I'd go there, but someone might construe it as thread derailing! Can't have that around here, right?

My understanding is that this bridge project was a provincial matter and another in a string of Liberal party infrastructure failures.

shyte happens... in Canadian winters! Glad you're so concerned. Such a failure, they opened it up the very next day to single-lane traffic. Again, it's only half finished at this point. When complete there will be 4 lanes, with directional spans independent of each other - full redundancy should one side fail reverting to a single 2-lane span.