MIDH Says Pipe Thieves Likely Tampered with Bridge Reinforcement

First, it was aluminum pipes being stolen. Now, we’ve discovered something even more alarming: several nuts and bolts from the bridge’s handrails have either been loosened or removed entirely. And get this, they weren’t cut or broken, they were simply unscrewed. Earlier today, we visited the bridge and spoke with Chief Engineer Evondale Moody, who explained why the bolts weren’t welded in place and what role they play in the bridge’s safety. He also shared more on the damage being caused by reckless drivers along the Coastal Highway. The Ministry of Infrastructure is urging the public to stop damaging these vital national assets, but is anyone listening?

 

Evondale Moody, Chief Engineer, MIDH

“Those are tightened screws. And so you have the screws coming out of the jersey bar and then you have an anchor that will support the horizontal rail that is there. Those anchors are still in place. Those have not been removed. It is the horizontal bar that has been removed from the bridge itself. Those are not welded. Those are just bolted in place in the event that we have to replace the entire section. So those remain as is. But if you can see if those are loose, then more than likely they were trying to lose those first. And so they decided to cut the horizontal bar, so those are not welded in place. Those are bolted in place.”

 

Britney Gordon

“Okay. So what purpose do they serve? If they can be taken out so easily.”

 

Evondale Moody

“It’s basically a handrail for the pedestrians, so it segregates the jersey barrier is for the vehicle traffic. If they hit that. That will deflect them from getting into the pedestrian footpath. However, on top of that jersey bar is a handrail, and that is a handrail is used for the pedestrians. The coastal Highway has only been open, I think just over a year and a half now, going on two years and over four kilometers of guardrail has been damaged. I can share some photos with you to highlight that. The four kilometers, that is basically four thousand meters. Each meter of guardrail passes us three hundred per meter. Again, a meter is three point two eight feet, so that’s over twelve thousand feet of guardrail. It’s happening at many different location because of reckless driving. However, what I want to, the positive thing about it is that the guardrail is serving its purpose. Because it is deflecting the vehicles from going off the road and no one has died as far as I’m aware. And so they crash into the barrier. And the barrier works because it deflects you back onto the road, which is the purpose of the barrier. However, most of these incidents that are occurring is because of drunk driving or reckless driving, and that is something that we definitely have to plan on, but that is not under our mandate to do that. But we have to protect our assets because. We are the one that has to replace it.”