Log in & Sign up
Most Commented
Mercier Bridge. You can see through hole (2nd photo) that opened in bridge's road bed on Wednesday. (Warren White photo)
Dorval man loses control of his car after hitting huge pothole on Mercier Bridge
Plate now covering crevice in road bed
Anne Sutherland
The Gazette
Friday, January 29, 2010
Mercier Bridge. You can see through hole (2nd photo) that opened in bridge's road bed on Wednesday. (Warren White photo)
A metal plate is covering a huge pothole on the Mercier bridge that caused an accident on Wednesday night.
Shortly before 11 p.m., a 42-year-old Dorval man driving north on the on-ramp from Highway 132 hit the hole and lost control of his car, striking the guardrail and dislodging a portion of it.
The man was not injured, but there was considerable damage to the undercarriage and side of his 1993 Subaru.
The pothole, about 1.5 metres by 1.5 metres, had been patched before, said an eyewitness who sent photos of it to The Gazette.
The driver called 911 and members of the Kahnawake Peacekeepers were the first to respond.
Inspector Warren White said in one portion of the pothole, it is possible to see through the ramp to the ground far below, through a maze of steel reinforcing rods.
“It’s a pretty big hole,” White said.
The Peacekeepers contacted Transport Quebec to have the hole fixed, but the bridge is owned by the Federal Bridge Corp. Ltd., which also takes care of the Champlain and Jacques Cartier spans.
White said a local contractor patched the hole with a steel plate. A more permanent repair for the pothole is expected to be done today.
“Is it safe? I don’t know, I’m not an engineer, but
I drive over it, I have to,” White said.
“The bridge is definitely in need of repairs and that’s what they’re doing right now,” White said, referring to the $135-million project to resurface and shore up the bridge.