Resident thinks ice hurt bridge at St. Adolphe

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 26/08/2009 (6094 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Did thick ice on the Red River during the spring flood contribute to the partial collapse of the St. Adolphe Bridge?

That’s the thinking of area resident Cheryl Kennedy Courcelles, who watched last spring as the ice-covered Red River rose several feet in just a few hours — a sudden, artificial rise caused by the activation of the Winnipeg Floodway control gates just to the north.

The sharp rise split up the still-solid ice into two huge pans that both slammed into the bridge.

"It was the creepiest thing ever," Kennedy Courcelles said. "The ice just started bulldozing along the shore, snapping trees and taking them out by the roots. That’s what rammed into the bridge. The bridge held it up a bit.

"The ice pans were miles long. They put pressure on the bridge."

The province closed the bridge Thursday morning after one of its piers suddenly shifted. The pier has sunk more than three metres and caused the bridge deck to buckle. Provincial officials are now planning the best, and safest, way to dismantle the damaged portions of bridge to replace them.

Kennedy Courcelles said the annual flooding has also irreparably washed away the riverbank in and around the bridge. Contributing to higher flood waters are ever-increasing drainage systems designed to quickly remove water from fields in the Red River Valley and beyond, she said.

"The approaches are right on those banks now," she said. "It’s because we’re treating the Red River as a drainage pipe. If the bridge is falling down it’s because the Red River is not happy."

Provincial engineers believe ice likely only played on a minor role in contributing to the near-collapse. They’re blaming an unstable slope on the west side of the bridge caused by flooding and excessive rain over the summer. No other bridge on the Red River has experienced a similar problem.

Jay Doering, dean of graduate studies at the University of Manitoba and a civil engineering professor, said the pier likely failed because the ground under and around it is saturated. That’s caused a huge chunk of the bank to shift towards the centre of the river, taking the pier with it.

"I’d be surprised if the ice had much, if anything, to do with it," he said.

Chief provincial flood forecaster Alf Warkentin said while the ice played havoc with flood-fighting plans last spring, it did not contribute to the riverbank becoming so unstable.

Doering added the province will likely remove the damaged portions of the bridge in a controlled way starting this fall and over the winter.

A provincial spokesman said engineers have mulled over using explosives and robotic saws to break up the damaged deck and pier so it can be safely removed.

bruce.owen@freepress.mb.ca