Nipigon River Bridge (2015)

The Nipigon River Bridge is a cable-stayed bridge carrying Ontario Highway 11 and Ontario Highway 17, designated as part of the Trans-Canada Highway, across the Nipigon River near Nipigon, Ontario, Canada. A steel deck truss road bridge was built at the site in 1937, parallel to an existing Canadian Pacific Railway bridge. In 1974, the original bridge was replaced with a steel plate girder structure. Among the several points on the Trans-Canada highway with only one crossing, all of which are in north-western Ontario, the two-lane Nipigon River Bridge was the longest. A $106 million project to replace the bridge with two parallel spans carrying 4 total lanes began in 2013 as part of a region-wide project to widen the Trans-Canada Highway to 4 lanes; the cable-stayed designs for the twin bridges was to be the first of its kind in Ontario. The future westbound bridge opened on November 29, 2015; both directions of traffic were shifted onto the new bridge to prepare the old span for demolition. The eastbound span is scheduled for completion in 2017.