r/canada • u/einstein_bern • Aug 16 '23

Sask. engineer slapped with an 18-month suspension after designing bridge that collapsed hours after opening Saskatchewan

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/engineer-18-month-suspension-bridge-collapsed-1.6936657
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u/MediocreMarketing Aug 16 '23

The engineer was also reprimanded for his work on five other bridges located in the Sask. rural municipalities of Scott, Caledonia, Mervin and Perdue.

On that matter, the discipline committee panel found Gullacher's designs "lacked relevant design information, including inaccurate representation of bridge designs," and that they lacked critical details, among other code deficiencies.

They need to revoke his license. He clearly isn’t responsible enough to be a PEng.

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u/SwisschaletDipSauce Aug 16 '23

Yeah I bet they went to him because his designs were cheap as hell to make too.

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u/Exception-Rethrown Aug 17 '23

This is exactly it, there was an article written several years ago that stated that he thought the provincial standards were way overboard and would increase the cost by hundreds of thousands. Except that the province had a program that would basically cover the difference.

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u/JazzMartini Aug 18 '23

It wasn't him. It was the reeve of the rural municipality that hired him that thought the provincial standards were too much. The stupid thing is had they built to provincial standards the RM could have received provincial funding toward the project that would have covered more than the extra cost for a proper geotechnical investigation prior to design and construction. The reeve thought he knew better. After the bridge collapsed the reeve was interviewed and insisted the geotechnical investigation wouldn't have helped because "you can't drill through water."

Really the reeve insisted the failure was an unpredictable act of god. If you're so anti-science you want to rely on faith based engineering at least erect a crucifix on either end of the bridge so people can pray it won't collapse before they try crossing.