The James Street Swing Bridge will remain closed to vehicle traffic for at least another week, Canadian National Railway officials confirmed Thursday.
Ch spokeswoman Lindsey Fedchyshyn told CKPR Radio that the company’s engineers have received a report on the bridge, which has been closed to all non-rail traffic since going up in flames Tuesday, Oct. 29.
"They'll definitely need a couple of days to review," Fedchyshyn said. "These things take time and we want the job to be done properly."
Fedchyshyn added that the review will take until at least Monday or Tuesday of next week.
Shortly after firefighters extinguished the blaze Tuesday evening, the area was ruled a crime scene and the cause of the fire was labelled suspicious.
That determination brought an investigator with the Ontario Fire Marshall’s Office to the city in the morning of Thursday, Oct. 31.
"We've collected some samples and some components from the first scene that we'll be examining later in a little more detail," Investigator John Montgomery told local reporters at the scene of the fire last week.
Debris samples were sent to the Centre of Forensic Sciences in Toronto and Montgomery said the timeliness of the results depend on the centre's caseload.
Montgomery also told local reporters during his investigation that he couldn't comment on the extent of the damage of the bridge. He did say say, however, that there was damage to the wooden on top of the bridge and the support structure below, which is also made of wood.
CN Rail has since made repairs to the bridge that will allow for rail traffic to safely cross. Vehicle traffic, however, must use an alternate route into and out of Fort William First Nation.
