Posted on 01/10/2016 6:53:47 PM PST by Hieronymus
A newly constructed bridge in northern Ontario has heaved apart, indefinitely closing the Trans-Canada highway — the only road connecting Eastern and Western Canada.
The Nipigon River Bridge has been closed for "an indefinite time due to mechanical issues," according to the Ontario Provincial Police. The bridge remains open to pedestrian traffic.
The west side of the bridge has pulled away from the abutment connecting it to the river bank's edge, lifting up about 60 centimetres.
As a result, police have shut down Highways 11 and 17 at the bridge, which is located about 100 kilometres northeast of Thunder Bay, Ont.
The estimated duration of the closure is "uncertain" with police noting it could be "possibly days."
"It's not just us. It's all of Canada that has a problem right now," Nipigon Mayor Richard Harvey told CBC News. "This is the one place in Canada where there is only one road, one bridge across the country." ======================================== Harvey added that police quickly started to stop people heading out on the Trans-Canada Highway at larger Ontario centres like Sault Ste. Marie, Thunder Bay and Terrace Bay, telling them to turn back or use an alternate route through the U.S.
(Excerpt) Read more at cbc.ca ...
Did they call in Red Green?
At least in my part of Ontario, things have been unseasonably warm, at least until about six hours ago. Probably the same cold front now clobbering us clobbered them first. I wouldn’t trust the ice at all.
What they need are the engineers from the Korean War—bitter cold has its own challenges.
I'm sure he wasn't the GI you were referring to, but comedian Mel brooks was a US Army combat engineer during WW II. He saw action during the Battle of the Bulge. When Brooks was asked about it, he said that it was really noisy and he couldn't get any reading done.
No, but Harold is looking into it.
He was with the 291st, also.
Those guys were mensch.
Cut social programs and invest in solid infrastructure like a government is supposed to do.
Advice we should use here in the US as well.
LOVED that show! Watched in MO. Smiling.
That was a real bite...
Well, there is always the RR bridge just a few meters away.
Yeah it was raining at 7 Am in southern Michigan this morning but its 17 degrees and winter now.
Yep.
My Dad said that was the coldest he’d ever been in his life.
He always sang the praises of Mickey Mouse Boots.
At the moment, we are being clobbered by a cold front after having had crazy warm temperatures. Perhaps some things were contracting faster than others, and at a rate and in an uneven way that had not been anticipated.
Road construction in somewhat extreme circumstances is challenging.
This should be a big black eye to the liberals.
He wrote First Across the Rhine: The 291st Engineer Combat Battalion in France, Belgium, and Germany, and Engineering the Victory: The Battle of the Bulge: A History.
Provided that one is coming from Winnipeg or points west, and headed to Toronto, Ottawa, or points east, it actually isn’t all that bad at first glance—one crosses the border twice, and according to mapquest, it will only add five hours to go via Minneapolis/Chicago/Sarnia instead.
Of course, that will mean a ton of extra traffic at a few key border crossings. Great fun.
It looks like it was a cantilevered system where the main support was on one side of the river and the overhang went across. The counterweight was a smaller section over a smaller ravine.
From the description, the wind, picked up the cantilevered half and set it back down off the main footing.
The wind here, (east end of Lake Ontario) has been howling for several hours and the gusts are in the 60MPH range. Having some familiarity with the Nipigon area up there...Its pretty flat, the wind really gets going off the lakes and it can gust in to the 90MPH range in short bursts as it heads back onto land from the warmer water of the lake. The river valley is like a funnel and can drive the wind speed much higher. The railroaders hate the bridge next to the roadway because of the wind speeds.
I wonder if with the crazy cold wind we are getting the cables contracted much faster than expected, exerting enough upwards pressure to cause something to pop out.
The bummer is that with a twin to this bridge being constructed beside it, they have bad stuff sitting on top of all the good spots for construction and will need to remove a good chunk of it before dropping in something new.
I read this book when I was about 13 or so over 40 years ago. I wonder if we produce men like that anymore. It was hellish what they went thru, but they went on.
“Follow the only Road.”
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