23SE0358HDRZ-SharpenAI-Motion-denoise-severe-noiseW
Chosen for the May 2025 takeover "Patterns" in Flickr's Explore
www.flickr.com/groups/inexplore/pool/jimmy_singleton_jr/
A rare photo of the Nipigon River Suspension Bridge with not one of the 1000s of vehicles that pass over it daily at the only road crossing in Canada between Atlantic and Pacific on or near it.
Underneath runs a huge amount of water in the narrowest part of the river that is the largest Tributary to Lake Superior.
A steel deck truss road bridge was built at the site in 1937,[3] parallel to an existing Canadian Pacific Railway bridge.
In 1974, the original bridge was replaced with a steel plate girder structure. The 1974 bridge was rehabilitated in the mid-2000s, which involved replacing the old Jersey-style concrete parapets with steel guardrail which offers a less obstructed view of the river, and adding a pedestrian walkway on the north side of the structure.[4][5] The 1974 bridge was demolished by Priestly Demolition from 2015-16, to make way for the second span of the new cable-stayed bridge (see below). The dismantling project won two honours at the 2016 World Demolition Awards, the Civils Demolition Award and the top prize which was the World Demolition Award, as "[i]t turns out that dismantling a bridge perched over icy waters in the midst of a northwestern Ontario winter is no easy matter".[6]
New bridge
A $106 million project to replace the 1974 bridge began in 2013 as part of a region-wide project to widen the Trans-Canada Highway to four lanes. The cable-stayed design for the twin bridges, with two parallel spans carrying four total lanes, 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 was scheduled for completion in 2017.[7][8] The eastbound span was completed in 2018, and the bridge fully opened to 2 lanes of traffic in each direction at the end of November, 2018. [9]
Underneath the new cable stayed bridge, with the railway bridge in the background.
Closure of new bridge
Since the bridge is asymmetric, with a longer eastern span, the western side of the bridge must be held down to balance the tension in the main cables. That is done using three sliding bearings, which hold main deck girders down to the concrete abutment while allowing lengthwise motion to act as an expansion joint.
On January 10, 2016, the new bridge was closed to traffic after a winter storm after all 40 M22 (7⁄8 in) bolts attaching a main deck girder to the northwest bearing had failed, causing the deck to lift by 60 centimetres (24 in),[10] resulting in the indefinite closure of the Trans-Canada Highway at the bridge.[11][12][13] 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.[11] The deputy mayor of Greenstone, 125 kilometres (78 mi) northeast of the bridge, declared a state of emergency for the municipality as a result of the closure.[13][14]
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.[15][16]
Among the several points on the Trans-Canada Highway with only one crossing, all of which are in Northwestern Ontario, the two-lane Nipigon River Bridge was the longest.[17] It was estimated that over $100 million of goods per day shipped within Canada by truck were delayed by the bridge closure.[18]
A temporary fix was performed, a hold-down support system securing the steel girders to the bridge structure with a hanger system.[19] The bridge fully reopened to one lane in each direction on February 25, 2016 although the exact cause of the failure was not fully known.
NIPIGON RIVER
The Nipigon River is located in Thunder Bay District in Northwestern Ontario, Canada.[4] The river is about 48 km (30 mi) long[1] (or 209 kilometres (130 mi) when measured to the head of Ombabika River[2]) and 50 to 200 m (160 to 660 ft) wide[citation needed], and flows from Lake Nipigon to Nipigon Bay on Lake Superior at the community of Red Rock, dropping from an elevation of 260 to 183 m (853 to 600 ft). It is the largest tributary of Lake Superior.[5]
Since 1943, 14,360 square kilometres (5,545 sq mi) of the Ogoki River basin has been diverted to the headwaters of the Little Jackfish River, a tributary of Lake Nipigon. This diversion increases the size of the river's watershed by almost 60% to 39,760 square kilometres (15,350 sq mi), and contributes an average of about 116 cubic metres per second (4,100 cu ft/s) to the Nipigon River.[6][7] This increased flow has caused significant erosion and landslides along the river.[5]
23SE0358HDRZ-SharpenAI-Motion-denoise-severe-noiseW
Chosen for the May 2025 takeover "Patterns" in Flickr's Explore
www.flickr.com/groups/inexplore/pool/jimmy_singleton_jr/
A rare photo of the Nipigon River Suspension Bridge with not one of the 1000s of vehicles that pass over it daily at the only road crossing in Canada between Atlantic and Pacific on or near it.
Underneath runs a huge amount of water in the narrowest part of the river that is the largest Tributary to Lake Superior.
A steel deck truss road bridge was built at the site in 1937,[3] parallel to an existing Canadian Pacific Railway bridge.
In 1974, the original bridge was replaced with a steel plate girder structure. The 1974 bridge was rehabilitated in the mid-2000s, which involved replacing the old Jersey-style concrete parapets with steel guardrail which offers a less obstructed view of the river, and adding a pedestrian walkway on the north side of the structure.[4][5] The 1974 bridge was demolished by Priestly Demolition from 2015-16, to make way for the second span of the new cable-stayed bridge (see below). The dismantling project won two honours at the 2016 World Demolition Awards, the Civils Demolition Award and the top prize which was the World Demolition Award, as "[i]t turns out that dismantling a bridge perched over icy waters in the midst of a northwestern Ontario winter is no easy matter".[6]
New bridge
A $106 million project to replace the 1974 bridge began in 2013 as part of a region-wide project to widen the Trans-Canada Highway to four lanes. The cable-stayed design for the twin bridges, with two parallel spans carrying four total lanes, 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 was scheduled for completion in 2017.[7][8] The eastbound span was completed in 2018, and the bridge fully opened to 2 lanes of traffic in each direction at the end of November, 2018. [9]
Underneath the new cable stayed bridge, with the railway bridge in the background.
Closure of new bridge
Since the bridge is asymmetric, with a longer eastern span, the western side of the bridge must be held down to balance the tension in the main cables. That is done using three sliding bearings, which hold main deck girders down to the concrete abutment while allowing lengthwise motion to act as an expansion joint.
On January 10, 2016, the new bridge was closed to traffic after a winter storm after all 40 M22 (7⁄8 in) bolts attaching a main deck girder to the northwest bearing had failed, causing the deck to lift by 60 centimetres (24 in),[10] resulting in the indefinite closure of the Trans-Canada Highway at the bridge.[11][12][13] 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.[11] The deputy mayor of Greenstone, 125 kilometres (78 mi) northeast of the bridge, declared a state of emergency for the municipality as a result of the closure.[13][14]
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.[15][16]
Among the several points on the Trans-Canada Highway with only one crossing, all of which are in Northwestern Ontario, the two-lane Nipigon River Bridge was the longest.[17] It was estimated that over $100 million of goods per day shipped within Canada by truck were delayed by the bridge closure.[18]
A temporary fix was performed, a hold-down support system securing the steel girders to the bridge structure with a hanger system.[19] The bridge fully reopened to one lane in each direction on February 25, 2016 although the exact cause of the failure was not fully known.
NIPIGON RIVER
The Nipigon River is located in Thunder Bay District in Northwestern Ontario, Canada.[4] The river is about 48 km (30 mi) long[1] (or 209 kilometres (130 mi) when measured to the head of Ombabika River[2]) and 50 to 200 m (160 to 660 ft) wide[citation needed], and flows from Lake Nipigon to Nipigon Bay on Lake Superior at the community of Red Rock, dropping from an elevation of 260 to 183 m (853 to 600 ft). It is the largest tributary of Lake Superior.[5]
Since 1943, 14,360 square kilometres (5,545 sq mi) of the Ogoki River basin has been diverted to the headwaters of the Little Jackfish River, a tributary of Lake Nipigon. This diversion increases the size of the river's watershed by almost 60% to 39,760 square kilometres (15,350 sq mi), and contributes an average of about 116 cubic metres per second (4,100 cu ft/s) to the Nipigon River.[6][7] This increased flow has caused significant erosion and landslides along the river.[5]