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Canada is now divided

NorthernRedneck

NorthernRedneck

Well-known member
I've been concerned about this for years. An hour's drive east of here lies a bridge connecting the east to the west halves of the country. I always thought "What would happen if something happened to that bridge?" A couple years ago they began building a large cable span bridge to replace the old one. It opened two months ago and they began tearing down the old bridge. Today, the new bridge basically lifted by two feet. This is one hell of an engineering f-ck up if you ask me. Canada is now officially cut in two until this problem is fixed. The only way to bypass this bridge would be to head south four hours from where I live and take the south shore of lake superior to Sault ste Marie Ontario.

Nipigon.jpg


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https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?...t=a.10151546846365582.844103.770060581&type=3
 
We had a bridge condemed and shut down north of Marietta on the Ohio River. More than an hours drive to cross the river. They decided to use a ferry in the interim while a bridge was being planned and built. Better than nothing. Any chance of a ferry up there?
 
Note.......the south route around lake superior goes through the states going down to Duluth MN over to Sioux MI then back up. There is a northern route that basically goes about three hours north over an unmaintained bush road then back south another 3 hours over a goat trail highway with no population or services.

This is definitely not a good situation. I know people who live on the other side of that bridge who depend on it to get here for medical appointments and such. Not to mention the commercial products that are not able to make it from one end of the country to the other.

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Not sure at this point. This section is only half of a new four lane bridge project designed to replace the old two lane bridge. This section only opened two months ago then they began deconstructing the old bridge to make room for the eastbound lanes to be built. So basically it's a drastic situation right now. The is the only official highway connecting east to west. Every transport going from BC to Nova Scotia needs to cross this bridge. I've always said that this is a perfect target for a terrorist looking to totally screw this country. All you'd have to do to cripple the entire economy of the country is take out this bridge.
 
This is equivalent to having only one highway between New York City and Los Angeles and having it shut down indefinitely. Imagine the economic impact that would have. Hell. We may as well have put up the Berlin Wall.

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Something that major I hope it surprises you how fast they can have a fix in place. Might be one lane and backed up traffic for miles but it would be better than nothing. When the bridge in San Fran collapsed I was amazed how fast they got things going again. Good luck.
 
It'll be interesting to see how things go. Everything shipped by transport in this country has to go over that bridge. I have friends who are basically trapped on either side right now. It's either a 3 day drive around the bottom of Lake superior through the states to get home or a three hour drive north and wait 3 days for the passenger train.

There might be hope though. Apparently they are allowing people to walk across so they can get home but they'd have to abandon their vehicles till it is repaired.

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That's got to be a real mess.

Not that I'm criticizing but having only 1 bridge leaving Ontario to points westward doesn't sound like good planning. :(
 
I know. Doesn't make sense. Looks like they already have it open one lane. They worked through the night and loaded it with concrete barriers on the side that lifted to temporarily level it out.

Definitely poor planning but when the whole world revolves around Toronto and it's the general belief that the area an hour north of Toronto all the way to the Manitoba border(which is a 20+ hour drive) is basically uninhabited, the ones who make decisions down there don't give a hoot.

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Don't worry, some good ole boys from Alabama are on their way to fix the bridge for 'ya. :yum:
 

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bczoom said:
Don't worry, some good ole boys from Alabama are on their way to fix the bridge for 'ya. :yum:
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Lmao. Yep. I already shared that picture on Facebook. Meanwhile, they do have it open to a trickle of traffic. Looks like part of the expansion joint built in China failed. Lmao. Yep. They cold weather tested it in -10 Celsius temperature and it didn't break so it was good to go. On the very first day of the year of -25 the thing snapped like a twig. Thankfully the whole thing didn't collapse.

http://m.tbnewswatch.com//News/379821/Single_lane_of_Nipigon_bridge_opened_to_traffic

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NorthernRedneck said:
This is equivalent to having only one highway between New York City and Los Angeles and having it shut down indefinitely. Imagine the economic impact that would have. Hell. We may as well have put up the Berlin Wall.

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Not really because we do not have such a bottle neck in our Highway system. There are at least twenty major bridges crossing the Mississippi river alone. A shut down of any one of them, which does happen from time to time, is merely "inconvenient."

But we have far more highways altogether. Not a boast just a fact. Although the land masses are relatively similar, the population of Canada is a fraction of the USA. And this one bridge is a significant distress for that "fraction."

Best of luck. I'm sure repairs will be expedited. But, one worries if this happened so soon in the life of such a bridge, how could you ever trust it.
 
FrancSevin said:
Not really because we do not have such a bottle neck in our Highway system. There are at least twenty major bridges crossing the Mississippi river alone. A shut down of any one of them, which does happen from time to time, is merely "inconvenient."

But we have far more highways altogether. Not a boast just a fact. Although the land masses are relatively similar, the population of Canada is a fraction of the USA. And this one bridge is a significant distress for that "fraction."

Best of luck. I'm sure repairs will be expedited. But, one worries if this happened so soon in the life of such a bridge, how could you ever trust it.
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That was my thought. What's going to happen next? Reminds me of the Tacoma Narrows collapse.
 
My thoughts exactly. I'm sure the powers that be might actually work on a contingency plan now. There is an old bush road that could be used as an emergency bypass if needed but the government would have to maintain it as such. Right now I believe it's washed out since last fall

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Stack a bunch of culvert pipes up, cover in dirt and pea gravel, pave over. A couple of days work.

I should be an enjinear.
 
waybomb said:
Stack a bunch of culvert pipes up, cover in dirt and pea gravel, pave over. A couple of days work.

I should be an enjinear.
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I like the way you think.

To make it even easier, it's said that it failed at -25°. At that temp, just drive over the icy river.
 
bczoom said:
I like the way you think.

To make it even easier, it's said that it failed at -25°. At that temp, just drive over the icy river.
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I thought of that also but a couple slight problems.

1. Fast moving current on the river below means open water most of the year. Even the lake running into the river is sketchy during the winter as it is basically a flooded river channel.

2. The bank below the bridge is about a 100ft drop down to the river below.

I had the thought of a winter ice road at the north end of the lake though where the ice is thicker. There's also an old rail line in that area where the rails have recently been removed. Any bridges are still in place. It would be a viable alternative to the bridge on the highway. Sadly though, the rail company was forced to dig big trenches on either side of any bridge on the line to forbid anyone from using the line due to liability reasons.
 
Apparently the bridge is still hanging on by a thread. It'll be a while before they can come up with a permanent solution. Until then it's down to a single lane separating the east from the west. The bridge is eventually going to be 4 lanes but for now they only got the one side completed since the other side needs to go where the old bridge was located. Won't be so much of a problem since the four lanes will eventually be 2 separate structures. So if there's a problem with one side they can just divert to the other side.

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Thought about this thread when I came across this picture showing the populated areas and roads of Canada. Look at the bright dot pretty much in the middle. That's where I live. Zoom in and just to the right you will see that the bridge in question is the only link between the east and west. Helps to put a perspective on the severity of the bridge failure
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Yep. Welcome to no man's land. Basically all the decisions for people living in that area are dictated by yuppies in the southern end of the province who have no clue what life is like an hour outside of Toronto.

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Now that is cool! Follow the 138 highway along the north shore of the St Lawrence river in Quebec and you'll find my home. We are at the end of the 138. Our biggest tourist attraction...The "Fin 138" sign.
 
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