Lincoln Bridge reopens after more than 2 months

The Lincoln Bridge reopened late Thursday afternoonafter being shut down since Feb. 19 because of damage caused by a dump truck.

For more than 11 weeks, traffic was rerouted via Nevers Road while the bridge was repaired.

"Very pleased to say that the Lincoln Bridge is open," BillFraser, the minister of transportation and infrastructure, said in an interview.

The bridge had to be closed after a dump truck struck the top of it, and the structure failed a safety inspection the next day.

Closed for months

"It's my understanding that when the truck was approaching the bridge the back dump part of the truck was up, and it struck the top part of the bridge," Fraser said.

• Traffic rerouted as dump truck strikes bridge in Oromocto

It tookhis departmenttime to order the parts needed to make the bridge safe again, he said.

"It did cause significant damage to the bridge, so there was some engineering work that had to be done and some parts that had to be ordered," said Fraser. "We had to do the design work."

The minister thanked peoplefor being patientduring the two months of the detour.