– We have made mistakes. It will not happen again, says road director Ingrid Dahl Hovland. It was on 15 August 2022 that the ten-year-old wooden truss bridge, Tretten bru, collapsed. No one was injured, but a car and a truck were stuck on the destroyed bridge. On Friday, the Norwegian Public Roads Administration publishes a report on the bridge collapse at Tretten in August 2022. The consultancy company PwC is behind the report. The wooden truss bridge was just over ten years old when it collapsed in August 2022. Photo: Frode Meskau / news Taking responsibility – I take responsibility for what has happened. But it is even more important that I take responsibility for the current situation and how we prepare for the future, says the road director. They have now implemented several measures to follow up the errors and deficiencies that came to light. – The follow-up has the highest priority, says Hovland. Knew about weaknesses In August last year, exactly one year after the ten-year-old Tretten bridge collapsed, the Accident Investigation Board’s first report came out. It concluded that the bridge probably collapsed due to fatigue. Calculations showed that there was a utilization of more than double what the bridge had capacity for. In the report, the Norwegian Public Roads Administration received severe criticism when it emerged that it was recommended to strengthen the bridge in 2016, but this was not done. – This should not happen. We need to get to the bottom of why it was not addressed and dealt with in 2016, said Bjørn Laksforsmo, divisional director of the Norwegian Road Administration, when the report to the Accident Investigation Board was submitted. Prohibits construction It was the Swedish Road Administration that built the bridge, but Innlandet county council has owned and maintained the same bridge since 2020. Tretten bridge was of the same type as the Perkolo bridge at Sjoa which collapsed in 2016. Following the bridge collapse at Sjoa, Tretten bridge was thoroughly investigated. It was then that it was recommended to strengthen the nodes on the bridge, but this was not done. After the bridge over Gudbrandsdalslågen collapsed in 2022, the Swedish Road Administration closed 14 wooden bridges of the same type. Now the Norwegian Public Roads Administration has said that they prohibit the construction of such bridges.
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The Swedish Road Administration presents a report after the Tretten bridge collapse – news Innlandet – Local news, TV and radio
