Demolition eyed for crumbling St. Adolphe Bridge

The shifting and crumbling St. Adolphe Bridge may be aided in its collapse byan explosion or two.

The provincial government is considering what it calls a "controlled demolition" of the bridge, which was closed on Aug. 20 after an inspection revealed one of its massive supporting piers had shifted, causing severe structural instability.

The pier, on the west side of the span, began to give way because of riverbank erosion and high water. Since then, it has started to sink, dropping more than three metres and causing the bridge deck to buckle.

Officials feared its total failure would come as early as Saturday but the rate of slippage of the pier has slowed, according to Ron Weatherburn, executive director of highway construction and maintenance for Manitoba Highways.

However, more rain in the area on Monday could worsen the situation, he added.

Weatherburn said explosives are being considered as a way to bring the bridge down once and for all.

"It would be a controlled explosion. We'll have experts in the field doing that," he said. "[But] we don't know if that's what we're going to be doing or not. We have to weigh all the options and the risks associated with each option."

Another option is to repair the bridge.

"With a bridge that's still moving out there, there certainly are risks to [repairing it]. What we're looking at right now are robotic-type technologies to do that so it can be as safe as possible for the workers," he said.

Major crossing for Highway 75 to United States

The bridge carries major traffic across the Red River and connects two major north-south routes: Highways 59 and 75.

Bob Stefaniuk, mayor of the Rural Municipality of Ritchot, which includes the St. Adolphe region, said the bridge closure has changed traffic patterns in the area. Motorists are now forced to use St. Mary's Road to travel between St. Adolphe and Winnipeg.

Yvonne Vernaus-Scott, who lives next to the bridge on the opposite side of the rest of the town of St. Adolphe, now has to drive a half-hour just to get her mail from the post office.

"Our general store is just across [the bridge], our mail is just across everything that we need," she said. "And thousands of people go across this bridge to get out to the whole east side of the river, so it's a major inconvenience for a whole lot of people."

Vernaus-Scott said the structure took a beating during this spring's flooding in southern Manitoba.

"There's quite a bend here and the ice jams just came up on to my property, up against my dike," she said. "And then I also noticed that it was up against the bridge the main part of the bridge and the first and second pier huge, huge slabs, some of them looked like about three feet thick."