Nipigon River Bridge

Nipigon River Bridge (2015)
Coordinates
Carries	2 lanes of Trans-Canada Highway (Highway 11 / Highway 17)
Crosses	Nipigon River
Locale	Nipigon, Ontario
Maintained by	Ministry of Transportation of Ontario
Characteristics
Design	Cable-stayed
Total length	252 metres (827 ft)
Width	37 metres (121 ft)
Height	75 metres (246 ft)
Number of spans	2
History
Architect	Marshall Macklin Monaghan (MMM)
Constructed by	Bot Construction and Ferrovial Agroman
Construction begin	2013
Construction end	2017 (estimated)
Construction cost	$106 million
Opened	November 29, 2015 (2015-11-29) (westbound bridge)
Replaces	Nipigon River Bridge (1937, 1974)
Nipigon River Bridge Location in Ontario

The Nipigon River Bridge is a cable-stayed bridge carrying Ontario Highway 11 and Ontario Highway 17, designated as part of the Trans-Canada Highway, across the Nipigon River near Nipigon, Ontario, Canada.

A steel deck truss road bridge was built at the site in 1937, parallel to an existing Canadian Pacific Railway bridge. In 1974, the original bridge was replaced with a steel plate girder structure.

Among the several points on the Trans-Canada highway with only one crossing, all of which are in north-western Ontario, the two-lane Nipigon River Bridge was the longest.

A $106 million project to replace the bridge with two parallel spans carrying 4 total lanes began in 2013 as part of a region-wide project to widen the Trans-Canada Highway to 4 lanes; the cable-stayed designs for the twin bridges was to be the first of its kind in Ontario. The future westbound bridge opened on November 29, 2015; both directions of traffic were shifted onto the new bridge to prepare the old span for demolition. The eastbound span is scheduled for completion in 2017.

Closure of new bridge

On January 10, 2016, the new bridge was closed to traffic after an expansion joint on the deck was lifted by 60 centimetres (24 in) after a winter storm, resulting in the indefinite closure of the Trans-Canada Highway at the bridge. As the bridge is a single point of failure in Canada's National Highway System, its closure effectively required vehicles travelling between Eastern and Western Canada to detour through the United States. The deputy mayor of Greenstone, located 125 kilometres (78 mi) northeast of the bridge, declared a state of emergency for the municipality as a result of the closure.

The bridge was partially reopened to traffic the following morning after 17 hours of closure, using one lane alternating between directions. The Ministry of Transportation inspected the bridge for further damage and determined that it would be able to handle cars and regular-weight transport trucks in the interim. 200 metric tons (200 long tons; 220 short tons) of concrete jersey barriers were placed to weigh down the deck.

It was estimated that over $100 million of goods per day shipped within Canada by truck were delayed by the bridge closure.

A temporary fix was performed, consisting of a hold-down support system securing the steel girders to the bridge structure with a hanger system. The bridge fully reopened to one lane in each direction on February 25, 2016, despite the exact cause of the failure not being fully known at the time.

Demolition of the old bridge and construction of the second span also resumed in February 2016.

External links

• Project website