NIPIGON -- It's now not only clear to Transportation Minister Steven Del Duca what caused the Nipigon River Bridge to split in January but also clear the bridge shouldn't be the only link between eastern and western Canada.
Standing on the bridge site on Thursday, Del Duca announced three factors compounded to cause the bolts that were holding the girder to the bearing on an expansion joint to break on January 10. The event severed the TransCanada Highway in half for 27 hours, only 42 days after the construction was complete.
Del Duca attributed the bridge failure to "overloading," echoing concurrent ministry and independent engineering reports.
"First was the design of the shoe plate and its flexibility; second was a lack of rotation in the bearing that was constructed; and third was improperly tightened bolts attaching the girder to the shoe plate," he said.
Repairs are expected to be complete by spring 2017 at a cost of $8 million to $12 million. Del Duca said both the public and private sectors will share in that cost.
"I think it's fair to say there's a degree of responsibility that's shared among everybody who participated in this," he said.
"Exactly how that responsibility or liability is apportioned will be the subject of discussions, some of which have begun."
Bolts from the Nipigon River Bridge were tested in two laboratories that both found their integrity to be sound. Thunder Bay-Superior North MPP Michael Gravelle has faced months of questions over the failure and he expressed relief to finally have answers.
"It wasn't the cold. It wasn't the wind. It was other technical factors involved and ultimately, any one of those three could have resulted in the same thing happening," Gravelle said.
The province intends to spend the next 18 months designing and undergoing an environmental assessment for an alternate route around the north of Lake Nipigon to be used in case of emergencies.
"Those discussions came up almost immediately so I was grateful that indeed there was some serious consideration given to a potential emergency route," Gravelle said.
"It's important to get that route right, which is why the environmental assessment is going to be important in terms of the route it will take. It's a positive move and one I'm pleased to see."
Once completed, the Nipigon River Bridge will be the first of its kind in Ontario at a cost of $106 million.
