New bridge collapses hours after opening in Saskatchewan

A politician in eastern Saskatchewan says he’s at a loss after a newly built bridge collapsed just hours after opening.

Reeve Duane Hicks explained the Dyck Memorial Bridge in the Rural Municipality of Clayton, Saskatchewan looked good on Friday morning when it opened to traffic, but by 4:30 p.m. the same day, part of bridge deck collapsed into the Swan River.

"The company did not build a bridge to fall over. We sure didn’t buy a bridge to fall over," said Hicks. "Nobody expected this."

Hicks was in Yorkton, Sask., when he received a call around 2 p.m. Friday from the town’s foreman who said the bridge wasn’t looking right. Hicks then picked up a local counsellor and went to inspect the bridge himself and noticed that it had a compression in it. He received a call from the fire department soon after saying that the bridge went down.

Hicks suspects there may have been something under the bridge that let go which caused the collapse. He said he’s not blaming anyone because he doesn’t know what happened.

"It’s an unknown fact at this time so we cannot point fingers at anybody,"

With files from the Canadian Press.