A frantic overnight demolition and cleanup operation was completed in time for Wednesday's rush hour on a busy highway running through Longueuil, after a passing snow truck smashed and destroyed an overhead pedestrian footbridge.
Transport Quebec re-opened Highway 132 to the estimated 120,000 daily vehicles at 6:00 a.m. the morning after a truck knocked down a pedestrian bridge that spanned the six-laned roadway below.
The collision happened at 8:15 p.m. Tuesday when the driver of a snow removal truck failed to lower the cargo bed of his vehicle, yet travelled on the highway only to run into the pedestrian overpass that spans Highway 132 at Normandie St. in Longueuil.
Alain Collin was driving nearby and saw the cargo section of the truck was still raised as if it was dumping a load.
"It's incompetence. I said to myself he was having a problem and was going to get it fixed. It's impossible he did not know that his load was up, but he was rolling so fast, about 85 km/h," Collin told The Canadian Press.
Transport Minister Robert Poeti confirmed on Wednesday morning that the truck "drove for several kilometres with its box raised" before hitting the span.
The collision left concrete and steel covering the eastbound section of the highway that runs along the south side of the St. Lawrence River near Montreal.
Officials also closed Lakeshore Rd. which runs parallel to Highway 132, because the bridge was unstable.
No vehicles were hit by the bridge, but several people had close calls.
The driver of the truck was taken to hospital and treated for nervous shock, according to Claude Denis of the provincial SQ police.
At this point officials are not certain if the truck driver, or the company he works for, will face fines, penalties or charges for the collision.
A woman who drove her car into the ditch in an attempt to avoid the collapsed bridge was treated in hospital for minor injuries.
Pedestrian bridges not as solid
Poeti said the collapse of the bridge - which was built in 1979 and updated last year - was no surprise in the circumstances, as such structures are not built to withstand massive impact.
"That infrastructure is a pedestrian bridge. It’s not for trucks, it’s not for buses, it’s for pedestrians. So when a truck hits that kind of structure, it’s not a structure that’s going to stay up. It’s totally different," said Poeti.
Structural Engineer professor Hellen Christodoulo said she was not surprised to hear a pedestrian overpass had collapsed after being hit, "Not with the kind of hit that it had, not really, no."
The impact was so severe that the cargo section of the truck was sheered off, and sections of the overpass immediately collapsed.
"They're not designed the same way. They're not designed for impact. They're more susceptible," said Christodoulo.
She said if the overpass had been made out of steel, instead of concrete, it would have been damaged but not to the point of falling down.
"Steel has a lot of benefits in the sense that it's not a brittle material, it will deform and it will not collapse," she said.
Wreckage carted away
The road was closed in both directions following the collision, re-opening 10 hours later once the debris had been cleared away.
Overnight Transport Quebec examined the damaged bridge and decided to demolish the rest of the structure spanning the highway.
Heavy equipment hammered holes in the footbridge until it fell onto the highway, at which point crews carted away the wreckage.
Transport Quebec said pedestrians who rely on the bridge will have to make do with one of the other pedestrian overpasses in Longueuil. The footbridge is the property of the city of Longueuil, and it will be responsible for its replacement.
On Wednesday the mayor of Longueuil, Caroline St-Hilaire, said the footbridge would be rebuilt, but did not offer a specific date the task would be completed.
