Professional Engineers Ontario (PEO) has launched an investigation into the engineering work related to the Nipigon River Bridge failure in January.
"Our responsibility as an organization is to protect the public interest of the people of Ontario when engineering services are provided to them. One of the aspects of that is to respond to complaints from the public, or, where we have reasonable and probable grounds that there might be professional misconduct or incompetence. I have the authority as registrar to undertake an investigation in those matters," said Gerard McDonald, PEO registrar.
PEO, the licensing and regulating body for professional engineers and engineering in the province, launched its investigation Oct. 14. The investigation is consistent with the organization’s mandate to govern the PEO licence and certificate of authorization holders and regulate and advance the professional engineering practice to protect the public interest, explained McDonald.
"We’ve been working closely with the MTO (Ministry of Transportation Ontario) since the bridge failure to get an appreciation of what and who was involved with respect to the failure. Subsequent to the release of the investigation, reports that came out and the information we have, we feel we now have reasonable and probable grounds to undertake such an investigation and so we are doing so."
Two engineering reports were released Sept. 22 on the northern Ontario bridge failure that severed the Trans-Canada Highway link between eastern and western Canada.
According to a joint statement issued by Steven Del Duca, MTO minister and Michael Gravelle, minister of northern development and mines and MPP for Thunder Bay-Superior North, a thorough engineering analysis was conducted by ministry bridge engineers and an independent engineering consultant to determine the cause of the malfunction. Although the analyses were conducted independently, both reached the same conclusion. The engineering reviews found that three main factors led to the malfunction: the design of the shoe plate and its flexibility; a lack of rotation in the bearing that was constructed; and improperly tightened bolts attaching the girder to the shoe plate. The failure occurred six weeks after the bridge opened.
As a regulator, McDonald said it is PEO’s responsibility to investigate any possible engineering practice deficiencies related to the failure and determine if engineering work was carried out by appropriately licensed people and companies.
Under Section 33 of the Professional Engineers Act, investigators appointed by the registrar are provided powers similar to those provided to law enforcement officials under a search warrant, to enter the business premises of the licence or certificate of authorization holder under investigation and examine anything relevant to the subject of the investigation, indicates a PEO release. The first step, as with any investigation, is to gather information.
"There is information out in the public but now that we’ve undertaken an investigation, we do have subpoena powers and can call on people to testify or provide us with information," said McDonald, adding PEO only has jurisdiction over engineering issues. "We’ll gather that information, we’ll assess it and we’ll determine whether any engineers or engineering companies involved committed an act of professional misconduct or incompetence. If that is found to be the case, then we could initiate disciplinary proceedings against them."
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