MTO asks NRC to help with Nipigon River Bridge failure investigation

by Truck News

NIPIGON, Ont. – Ontario’s Ministry of Transportation (MTO) has requested help from the National Research Council (NRC) in its efforts to determine the cause of the failure of the Nipigon River Bridge.

The bridge split in two last week causing major traffic and transport delays since it severed an essential portion of the Trans-Canada highway.

Starting next week, NRC’s experts will being to analyze the damaged bolts from the bridge, that will be transported to facilities in Ottawa for further testing. Failure analysis will be carried out on the bolts used to hold together two sections of the cable-stay bridge.

“We are pleased to work with Ontario’s Ministry of Transportation to analyze the conditions that led to the bolts’ failure on the Nipigon River Bridge,” said Richard Tremblay, general manager of construction for NRC. “The National Research Council is deploying its best industry-leading experts in materials analysis and critical infrastructure and advanced equipment to arrive at a timely, safe, and lasting solution for Canadians using this important trade corridor.”


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  • I am sure the NRC will look where these bolts were made & with what quality of steel used. Were they of proper length etc…hoping that costs weren’t cut which lead to a concern for safety. This could have been so much worse that what it was.

  • the bridge was never designed to withstand the sub zero temperatures of N Ontario……look at the Macinac bridge design…..they knew in the 1950’s more than the engineers of this bridge……sell it to somewhere there’s no frost issues,and build one that works….MTO incompetence……hopefully there is MTO accountability,and they don’t get to blame some little guy

  • It’s not to hard to figure out why the bridge lifted at one end, as the support cables being longer at one end will shrink more under the extreme cold versus the shorter cables. You will have more more shrinkage on a longer cable than a shorter one. That bridge should have had a vertical cement pillar also in place on the other side of the river so that all support cables would be equal in length. Therefore having the same tension of shrinkage during extreme cold weather. I’m not a rocket scientist.
    It’s just common sense.