The 18 Mile River Bridge is now officially open to traffic.
Though traffic has been freely flowing over the bridge — located in Huron Township just west of Lucknow — since May 27th, the ‘Grand Opening’ was held today (WED).
A number of representatives from all over Huron and Bruce Counties were present as the ribbon was cut on Bruce Road 86.
Bruce County Engineer Brian Knox says they’re more than happy with the new bridge, which he believes will stand for more than 80 years.
After the collapse in November, Knox says the design of the bridge changed slightly.
It went from a rigid-frame bridge to a pre-stressed girder bridge, and Knox says the two types look the same, but the girder bridge is much safer and more state of the art.
Knox says there are about 150 bridges in Bruce County and as the years go on, they will all have to be replaced.
He says they’ve learned from the collapse of the bridge and they now know that the County can handle a disaster like that if it happens again.
Bruce and Huron Counties are still awaiting a report from the Ministry of Labour on their investigation of the collapse.
