While the Nipigon River Bridge has been fully re-opened to two lanes, what caused the bridge to lift remains unanswered.
Ministry of Transportation Ontario Construction Engineer Gary Weiss on Tuesday morning said it would be at least another three to four weeks before the bolt testing is complete.
For now, they have a temporary repair set up, a support system that holds the bridge in place in order to resist the full upload of the bridge and all its flowing traffic.
"The temporary fix is there for a longer term," Weiss said.
"We've been able to have that to accommodate both the temperature movements, the contraction back and forth and it allows for all the rotations that's supposed to happen on the bridge.”
The newly-constructed Nipigon River Bridge split in the cold on Jan. 10, leading to the only transportation link between Eastern and Western Canada severed for nearly 17 hours.
The Ontario Provincial Police closed Highway 11-17 after bolts holding the girder to the bearing on an expansion joint broke on the bridge's north side. That caused the eastern half of the bridge to rise about two feet.
Engineers on site on Jan. 10 braved a wind chill factor that made the temperature feel like it was -28 C.
On Jan. 11 the MTO had a temporary fix in place to allow a single lane of the bridge to be re-opened to traffic.
"It's important to get the traffic back on the bridge at normal flowing conditions so we can focus on moving forward on the project," Weiss said at the side of the bridge Thursday morning.
The MTO’s next step will include the demolition of the old bridge before moving forward with the next phase of construction that will see the completion of the new bridge.
The construction on the second bridge is set to begin as early as next week.
Minster of Northern Development and Mines Michael Gravelle, who also represents the Thunder Bay – Superior North riding that Nipigon is in, was unable to attend the official re-opening of the bridge.
Gravelle did, however, make a statement to CKPR Radio Wednesday and acknowledged the inconvenience the bridge repairs have had on people who live or travel through the area.
“I do want to thank local residents, motorists, travellers, all of the communities that were impacted by this for their patience and understating during the repairs,” he said Wednesday.
