Minister confirms department trucks violated weight limits on covered bridge
New Brunswick's Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure has confirmed department dump trucks carried aggregates across Hammond River No. 3 Bridge in recent months, a practice that violates weight restrictions on the century-old covered bridge at Smithtown.
The bridge is rated for a maximum weight of 12 tonnes.
The department closed it indefinitely on Monday after an inspection revealed structural problems.
"[Trucks] have [used the bridge] in the past in certain circumstances," said Minister Bill Fraser. "Limitations of these structures sometimes conflict with the provision of service. If there's an emergency or a washout we have to respond … and those structures are used to provide those services"
Fraser would not speculate on whether an overweight department truck caused the damage.
He could not say why trucks were not engaged from a DTI depot to the south of the Hammond River at Loch Lomond.
Trucking industry sources say a tandem dump truck of the type used by the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure weighs between 12 and 14 tonnes empty.
A fully loaded tandem dump truck can carry as much as 26 tonnes.
Several people living on Mount Prospect Road told CBC that DTI trucks carrying crushed rock made numerous trips through the bridge in late April while the department was doing repairs to their road.
The closure is a major inconvenience for people living south of the Hammond River, who no longer have easy access to stores, doctors' offices and schools in nearby Hampton.
Last October another historic Hammond River covered bridge, further downstream at French Village, was seriously damaged when an overweight excavator being used for maintenance work crashed through the deck.
That bridge is currently closed and in the process of being rebuilt.
The work is expected to take about eight months to complete at an estimated cost of $1 million.
