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Roads: Ontario/GTA Highways Discussion

BurlOak said:
Expansion joints open an close during temperature change. It is the bearings that prevent uplift, which is what happened here. On a normal bridge, there is enough self weight that the bridge ends cannot lift. For this cable stayed bridge, the stressing of each strand has a great affect on the how positively the bridge is sitting on the abutments.
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When was this bridge constructed? Google streetview from August 2012 shows the old bridge with no sign of construction of a new bridge. Did it start immediately after that? Was the old bridge demolished very recently? Bad timing if so.
 
Very, very recently. The new bridge only opened on November 29th or something like that.. so the bridge must have been demolished in the last two months.
 
This is a colossal engineering failure. Some engineer should get fired and loose their license for such incompetence. This is not s poorly maintained bridge. This was a design flaw in the calculations. Now half the country is split from the other.
 
The provincial government is at least twinning Highways 11/17 from Thunder Bay to Nipigon, The old bridge is being demolished to make way for the second span. I also think Highway 17 should be twinned between Kenora and the Manitoba border, the only other section in which a single carriageway connects eastern and western Canada by road without going through the US.
 
It would have been interesting if Canada had an interprovincial expressway system like the interstate expressway system in the United States.

Even if the Nipigon River Bridge didn't close, the fastest route by motor vehicle between Toronto and Vancouver would still have been through Chicago, even considering border checks and traffic.
 
ShonTron said:
The provincial government is at least twinning Highways 11/17 from Thunder Bay to Nipigon, The old bridge is being demolished to make way for the second span. I also think Highway 17 should be twinned between Kenora and the Manitoba border, the only other section in which a single carriageway connects eastern and western Canada by road without going through the US.
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I believe its in the capital project for MTO to do that as well.
 
Johnny Au said:
It would have been interesting if Canada had an interprovincial expressway system like the interstate expressway system in the United States.
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There's no precedent for an expressway crossing a distance as vast and unpopulated as northern Ontario anywhere in the world. That being said, a second carriageway or an alternate road is warranted in those parts where there's only one road - in the Kenora and Nipigon areas. And those are the parts that are being twinned.

Someone on SSP posted this. Most Canadians probably rolled their eyes when this first aired but in some parts of the country it's not far from the truth. :D

 
nfitz said:
Has it been demolished? I thought it was closed, and they were preparing to demolish it ...
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Demolition has started, but I am not sure of the extent. Apparently it is demolished beyond the point of return and a "Bailey Bridge" would have had to be used utilizing the piers.
It looks like they pulled down the cable stayed bridge, rebolt it, and open it later in the morning.
 
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MisterF said:
There's no precedent for an expressway crossing a distance as vast and unpopulated as northern Ontario anywhere in the world. That being said, a second carriageway or an alternate road is warranted in those parts where there's only one road - in the Kenora and Nipigon areas. And those are the parts that are being twinned.

Someone on SSP posted this. Most Canadians probably rolled their eyes when this first aired but in some parts of the country it's not far from the truth. :D

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I lived in the north where a bridge went out a few years back, in the winter. To get to Toronto (or even North Bay), we had to go around via Quebec which added hours to the trip. Kids couldn't get to school. Travelling became even more difficult for people trying to get to medical appointments. Single road access can have a major impact on communities.
 
Given this crapshoot, I think it just put Northern Highway redundancy further up the highway expansion agenda. It's even more unfortunate because, like what was mentioned earlier, this is a section where 11 and 17 are co-signed.

The twinning doesn't need to be a full expressway (controlled access). Highway 11 from Gravenhurst to North Bay should be a good template. It has interchanges at major roads, but has a whole bunch of at-grade intersections at minor roads that don't, and probably will never, warrant an interchange.
 
PinkLucy said:
I lived in the north where a bridge went out a few years back, in the winter. To get to Toronto (or even North Bay), we had to go around via Quebec which added hours to the trip. Kids couldn't get to school. Travelling became even more difficult for people trying to get to medical appointments. Single road access can have a major impact on communities.
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I remember this, the Latchford Bridge failure, wasn't it in 2003? At least there were two options, despite the long detours: around the other side of Lake Temiskaming via Quebec, or for points farther north, via Sudbury and Highway 144. If you lived in Temagami, or Cobalt though, it would have been a major problem.
 
One lane is now open and traffic is flowing across slowly according to the OPP.

@OPP_COMM_NWR: UPDATE: ROAD CLOSURE: Nipigon River Bridge is currently OPEN to a single lane. Traffic control is in place, still expect delays #Nipigon ^cc

Looks like they stacked up concrete barriers to add weight and bring the bridge down to a better alignment. I suspect some adjustments on the cable stays is the solution to the problem. One has to hope that the engineering took into account temperature, etc.
 
ShonTron said:
I remember this, the Latchford Bridge failure, wasn't it in 2003? At least there were two options, despite the long detours: around the other side of Lake Temiskaming via Quebec, or for points farther north, via Sudbury and Highway 144. If you lived in Temagami, or Cobalt though, it would have been a major problem.
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That was it and yes, it was a major problem because I was north of the bridge; we had to go through Quebec and their winter roads aren't so great; if I remember correctly, it added about 3 hours on a trip to Toronto or to Sudbury, both places I drove to frequently for work.
 
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