Highways in Canada

[MonctonRad]

Canada has been rent asunder!!!

Now the rest of you know how the Maritimes would feel if Quebec were to ever separate.

This is seriously bad news for travellers without a passport. I've always thought our trans Canadian travel options in northern Ontario were seriously limited.

[vid]

Thunder Bay is supplied from the west (except for Walmart, which is supplied from Toronto) so this isn't going to affect us too much, but the small towns east of the bridge are fucked.

[swimmer_spe]

The province should seriously consider building an all weather highway that passes north and West of Lake Nipigon. Highway 527 or 585 could be extended to do this.

[vid]

Greenstone has declared a state of emergency. Greenstone is a regional municipality of about 5,000 people which includes the communities of Beardmore, Geraldton, Longlac and Nakina along Highway 11, north of Nipigon. With the bridge closure, some of these communities are now over 12 hours away from a large population centre.

state of emergency declaration

[swimmer_spe]

Originally Posted by vid

Greenstone has declared a state of emergency. Greenstone is a regional municipality of about 5,000 people which includes the communities of Beardmore, Geraldton, Longlac and Nakina along Highway 11, north of Nipigon. With the bridge closure, some of these communities are now over 12 hours away from a large population centre.

state of emergency declaration

Where is the nearest hospitals that are on either side of the bridge?

[Marshsparrow]

what a national embarrassment! would the US ever have to route truck traffic through Canada because the only road east-west was broken due to the cold?

[vid]

Originally Posted by swimmer_spe

Where is the nearest hospitals that are on either side of the bridge?

The nearest hospital west of the bridge is in Nipigon (not even 5 minutes from the bridge), it has an emergency room but I don't think it's 24/7 unless absolutely necessary. The nearest full service hospital is in Thunder Bay, about an hour west.

East of the bridge, the nearest clinics is in Terrace Bay and Beardmore, either one a little more than an hour away. The nearest hospitals are in Geraldton and Marathon, both 3 hours away. The nearest full service hospital is in Sault Ste Marie, 8 hours east.

Northern Ontario has a well equipped air ambulance system to serve these communities, so the only people that will be really affected as far as health care goes will be those living closest to Nipigon but east of the bridge. It will also affect anyone who lives east of the bridge and has medical appointments in Thunder Bay, as they're now cut off from the city. There are no air strips near the bridge, however, so only helicopters can serve the area.

Motorist are being advised of the bridge closure between Kenora and Sault Ste. Marie. Thunder Bay and Nipigon are preparing to host stranded travellers west of the bridge, east of the bridge it's less clear but I assume Beardmore and Terrace Bay/Schreiber (as they're the closest) will accommodate most people on highway 17.

The OPP issued an advisory of the closure at 3:19pm, just minutes after the bridge buckled, so hopefully not too many people are stranded, but I've seen comments on Facebook suggesting people are still stuck in their cars at the bridge for some reason. Gas bars and grocery stores east of the bridge are starting to run out of supplies. West of the bridge everything is business as usual; as I said above, we're served out of Winnipeg for virtually everything we need so it's the small north shore towns that are going to be hardest hit. Walmart and Metro are supplied from the east but the word is their trucks have already turned around to go through the US.

[mattpa]

What happens when engineers from toronto forget its cold for 4-5 months of the year haha. But seriously this is an embarassment they should have never done a suspension bridge those plastic covers crack at -40 same thing happened in winnipeg at our pedestrian bridge on provancher, but it didnt shift like this

[swimmer_spe]

Originally Posted by mattpa

What happens when engineers from toronto forget its cold for 4-5 months of the year haha. But seriously this is an embarassment they should have never done a suspension bridge those plastic covers crack at -40 same thing happened in winnipeg at our pedestrian bridge on provancher, but it didnt shift like this

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deh_Cho_Bridge

This one crosses the MacKenzie River near Yellowknife.

[vid]

If anyone is interested, the engineering firm behind the bridge is Hatch Mott MacDonald, which has experience building bridges in cold climates in Canada. The general contractor is BOT Construction. The bridge project will cost approximately 106 million through 2017.

[vid]

[MolsonExport]

Part of that bridge is Nipi-gone.

[vid]

I hate when people pronounce it that way. It's "NIP-ih-gun" not "nip-ee-GONE"

[swimmer_spe]

Originally Posted by vid

I hate when people pronounce it that way. It's "NIP-ih-gun" not "nip-ee-GONE"

Ihhh....

[vid]

It's hard to show how to pronounce that, it's like the i sound in "in". In IPA, it is represented as i.

There is no shortage of memes about this now:

[1overcosc]

If the bridge doesn't reopen very soon this is a serious national emergency.

We should be mobilizing the military to provide emergency supplies to northern communities. We should also try to negotiate with the US for a temporary removal of the passport requirement for the Sault Ste. Marie and Thunder Bay border crossings until this situation is resolved.

[Innsertnamehere]

• Video Link

Scott must work at Hatch Mott MacDonald..

[trebor204]

From
http://www.tbnewswatch.com/News/379810/Newly_constructed_Nipigon_Bridge_splits_in_cold_

Arrangements are being made to ensure ambulance and fire vehicles can cross the sunken expansion joint on metal sheeting, should emergencies arise. In the meantime, Superior-North Emergency Medical Services has coordinated a regional approach to land ambulance coverage with regional hospitals.

[swimmer_spe]

Originally Posted by 1overcosc

If the bridge doesn't reopen very soon this is a serious national emergency.

We should be mobilizing the military to provide emergency supplies to northern communities. We should also try to negotiate with the US for a temporary removal of the passport requirement for the Sault Ste. Marie and Thunder Bay border crossings until this situation is resolved.

Some realities you may not understand:
1) Those communities are not completely cut off. The ones on the east side are within a day's drive of Sault St Marie.
2) ORNGE is an air ambulance service that operates in northern Ontario.
3) CP mainline tracks are right there. They could load the truck trailers onto trains to move them.
4) the banks are quite steep. No temporary bridge would span far enough at that height.

There is not much a military unit could do. Really, the government, not the military needs to put in a temporary passenger train to go to Nipigon(the east side of the river) to Thunder Bay to service the people living to the east of the bridge.

[haljackey]

A double double should go to the first hoser who successfully navigates that old logging road from one point to the other in the middle of January!