TRUMAN – A bridge located in a rural area of the MD of Bonnyville is closed to traffic from both directions, after a vehicle appears to have collided with the enclosed bridge.
Coral Robinson lives near Truman Bridge and says she believes the collision happened during the evening of Oct. 25.
“Between Friday evening and Saturday morning a logging truck collided with the bridge, losing a bunch of tamarack logs in the process. The truck drove right through the enclosed bridge damaging all the beams and fled the scene,” says Robinson.
She says it also looks like a mini track hoe came to remove the logs from the road, and says the entire episode happened during the night. The bridge’s closure cuts off Range Road 485, north of Township Road 630.
The MD of Bonnyville released a general notice stating that the closure is effective from Oct. 26 until further notice.
Robinson said she is angry with the situation, and explained the burden the bridge closure puts on her family.
“This puts my family in a really crappy situation of having to drive an extra 15 to 20 minutes on a crappy, curvy, and hilly, back country road to get to Glendon. My kids are going to lose 40 minutes a day to extra busing because of this,” says Robinson.
The Robinson family also has farmland on the other side of the bridge.
“When we were combining this [past] weekend, a five-minute drive from my house took me almost 20 minutes just to get to the field,” says Robinson.
She has spoken with the MD of Bonnyville and hopes the bridge will be fixed as soon as possible.
“[It] sounds like it will happen faster if they can find the truck responsible for damaging the bridge.”
MD of Bonnyville Coun. Ben Fadeyiw, who is currently running for Rural Municipalities of Alberta, recently brought up infrastructure issues that municipalities are facing, specifically around bridges, during a recent interview with Lakeland This Week. He says the province is handing over the responsibilities of aging bridges to municipalities.
Fadeyiw foretold the potential impacts that closing bridges can have on residents and is advocating for more infrastructure funding.
Speaking with Lakeland This Week, the councillor confirmed the damage caused to the Truman Bridge is being investigated by RCMP.
“There is damage to the bridge on the first check. They are initiating a deeper investigation on the bridge this Saturday (Nov. 2) by engineers to see how deep the damages are,” said Fadeyiw on Oct. 30. “Right now, we are in a wait and see,” said Fadeyiw.
Lakeland This Week reached out to RCMP for information, but did not hear back as of press deadline.
