Residents of a small Nova Scotia island are once again able to drive to the mainland after a dramatic bridge collapse earlier this month.
Nova Scotia’s Department of Transportation and Infrastructure Renewal (TIR) has completed work on a temporary causeway, once again allowing the approximately 30 residents of Durrel’s Island to drive onto the mainland of the province near Canso, N.S., in Guysborough County.
Residents were forced to rely on the local fire department after Tittle Bridge, a steel bridge constructed in 1950, collapsed on July 7.
Contractors with Alva Construction had been transporting equipment that would be used to replace the bridge this summer when it collapsed.
Video submitted to Global News shows a large truck attempting to cross Tittle Bridge.
A worker in an orange safety vest appears to be guiding the truck across.
The worker clears the edge of the structure only moments before it collapses, plunging the truck and scraps of metal into the water.
There were no major injuries sustained in the incident and one worker was taken to hospital for observation.
Vernon Pitts, Warden of Guysborough County, told Global News after the incident that the contractor gambled and took a chance in moving the equipment, suggesting the bridge was never designed to carry that much weight.
“I know full well the contractor exceeded those limitations. You take a tractor-trailer with a float and a crane on a float and what would that weigh? That would be over 80 tonnes, I bet,” Pitts said by phone.
“But I am going to be very interested to see what actually happened. Like did it slide off the abutment or did it break one of the girders?”
The construction of a new bridge is in the works. It’s set to open later this summer.