The Blakkesrud Bridge across the E6 highway in Eidsvoll will remain closed until improvements are made, according to Statens Vegvesen, the Norwegian Public Roads Administration.
The wooden bridge has undergone inspection with independent analysis of the findings, similar to inspections of many other wooden bridges that were closed after the collapse of the Tretten Bridge in August.
The Blakkesrud Bridge was opened in 2011 and is made of wood from Sweden. It has a stress-laminated glulam deck, as noted in the scholarly article Classification of Creosote Bleeding from Timber Bridges, published in March 2017. Glued laminated timber, often called glulam, is a structural engineered wood product that can be manufactured into many shapes and sizes, including into curved shapes. Connections are usually made with bolts or steel dowels and steel plates.
Blakkesrud Bridge is one of several wooden bridges in Norway still closed following the collapse of the bridge in Tretten in August. The 150m-long, 10m-wide Tretten structure, near Lillehammer – only a decade old – broke in two, collapsing into the river stranding two vehicles and their occupants. There were no casualties or injuries in the early morning accident on August 15, but one driver was airlifted to safety.
Inspections of the bridges have been carried out by the Swedish Roads Administration on behalf of the Norwegian authority. There are three other wooden bridges out of a total of 14 that still remain to be analysed, according to Norwegian media; two forest wood bridges in Eidsvoll and a bridge across E6 in Grane Municipality.
In October, Norway’s Public Roads Administration says strengthening work needed to be done on the Flisa Bridge, one of 14 wooden bridges recently closed over safety concerns. The three-span 196m-long truss bridge crosses the Glomma River in the city of Flisa, south-eastern Norway. It was opened in 2003 and is the world’s largest modern wooden bridge constructed for vehicular traffic. However, it, along with 13 other wooden bridges were closed in August a day after the after the Tretten Bridge collapsed.
