THUNDER BAY -- Four months after the Nipigon River Bridge split in the cold, the integrity of its bolts are still being tested.
The bolts are undergoing chemical, mechanical and metallurgical testing to determine whether their structural integrity caused them to break on Jan. 10, when the west end of the bridge rose 30 centimetres and stopped trans-Canada traffic for 17 hours.
The incident occurred only 42 days after the newly-constructed bridge was opened to traffic.
The Ministry of Transportation sent bolts from the bridge to the National Research Council in Ottawa and The Surface Science Western Research Facility at the University of Western Ontario for testing on Jan. 15.
Minister of Northern Development and Mines Michael Gravelle had referred to the $110-million project as the “jewel” of the four-laning highway construction between Nipigon and Thunder Bay.
Gravelle said as much as anyone, he’s eager to hear the results of the tests when they are complete and committed to releasing the information to the public.
“I’m keen to see the results of the research that’s underway as well and (I’m) pressing to get those results as soon as possible,” he said on Friday.
“I was hoping and expecting to see the results by now but I understand this is a complex issue in terms of what caused it. We certainly recognize there’s a tremendous need to know what happened so we can make whatever adaptations we need to in terms of the other tower that will be going up.”
Construction crews were scheduled to begin building the mirror half of the bridge in mid-April, complete with a third tower to support the province’s first cable-stayed bridge.
