A wooden bridge which was built last year to carry local traffic over the new E6 highway at Sjoa in Norway collapsed yesterday as a timber truck crossed over it.
The driver of the truck, which fell 6m when the bridge at Perkolo collapsed, was taken to hospital and the Norwegian highways authority Statens Vegvesen is investigating the incident. The 45m-long, 5m wide bridge was designed by consultant Reinertsen and approved by Statens Vegvesen.
Contractor Implenia Aurstad and supplier Moelven Glulam are participating in the investigation to try and establish the cause of the collapse. The bridge is part of the new E6 road project between Ringebu and Otta which incorporates a total of six laminated timber bridges all built between December 2014 and September 2015.
"We will do everything we can to help find the cause of the collapse as soon as possible," said NPRA project manager Øyvind Moshagen. Highway traffic is not affected by the incident since it happened on the construction site.
NPRA is responsible for 55 wooden road bridges, nine of which are truss bridges made of laminated timber and of similar design to the bridge at Perkolo. In total Statens Vegvesen manages 134 wooden bridges but the remainder only carry pedestrians and cyclists.
