Town mayor worries Pic River Bridge closure likely to repeat

A plow truck striking the Pic River Bridge bridge near Marathon on Thursday wasn’t the first such incident to close the TransCanada Highway and the nearby town’s mayor doesn’t believe it will be the last.

“I hope it doesn’t (happen again) but I think working with the minister of transportation, the contractor, having a discussion with those people, that they come up with some solutions or just maybe very carefully going over the bridge at a very slow pace,” said Marathon Mayor Rick Dumas.

“But if we get major winter storms and you have a lot of traffic going over the bridge with the plow trucks, I can see it happening again.”

Around 5 p.m., a plow truck struck the bridge located about eight kilometres east of Marathon. The Ontario Provincial Police closed the highway for six hours as Ministry of Transportation engineers inspected it for structural damage.

Dumas pointed out the bridge stands between Marathon and the Barrick Hemlo Mine, adding its closure impacts transit for many of the town’s residents.

A similar incident closed the bridge on Dec. 17 when a truck struck the bridge and became stuck.

Unfinished construction at the end of the 2015 season pushed the Pic River Bridge’s construction into next year.

In the meantime, the MTO has placed a temporary module bridge in its place. That bridge's edges are made of steel as opposed to concrete, making them more susceptible to being damaged when struck.

The Ministry of Transportation has placed flags and reflectors in place on the bridge as a warning to snowplow operators and it intends to erect warning signage for motorists as well.

Thunder Bay-Superior North MPP Michael Gravelle called the incident “irritating,” in the wake of Sunday’s splitting of the newly-constructed Nipigon River Bridge.

“This absolutely can not happen again,” Gravelle said.

“It does absolutely stop traffic. We’re obviously seeing the impact of that in what happened with the Nipigon River Bridge.

"To have this happen only four or five days afterwards was upsetting, let alone the fact that it was the second time this has happened. I’m doing everything I can to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”