On Tuesday afternoon, it was reported that a bridge was about to collapse on the E6 at Badderen in Kvænangen municipality in Troms.
The reason is to be what Vegtrafikksentralen describes as “a critical construction failure” at the bridge.
Operations Manager Karl Erik Thomassen in the police says that there is significant damage to the bridge, and that it is not safe to drive over at this time.
– It has got a crack in the middle, he says.
Thomassen says that the bridge next to the smoke last year, and that there are therefore no other detour options than driving via Finland on the E8 or E45.
SAFETY: Emergency services are on site to ensure that no one drives over the bridge. Photo: Krister Guttormsen-Walgren.
sea view
Closes for a long time
The Norwegian Public Roads Administration has sent a contractor to the site to assess the bridge.
Mayor of Kvænangen municipality, Eirik Losnegård Mevik, says newspaper Future in the north that the municipality is in contact with the State Administrator to find a solution to the situation.
– What the municipality is doing now is to put someone on duty on the E6 in Burfjord that will get the heavy traffic locked aside. Then we also have people on site at the bridge who take care of, says Mevik.
Erland Tretteskog at Vegtrafikksentralen tells Dagbladet that the bridge will be closed for a longer period, and that they have informed Finland about the situation.
– It will be closed for a long time, at least a week, he says.
Transported by boat
Avisa Nordlys writes that people are now getting ready to transport people by boat.
Tor Johnny Josefsen runs Mekonomien Servicesenter in Badderen, according to the newspaper. He is now preparing his leisure boat to transport people in critical need.
– It will certainly occur. There are local people with small children in the car, who live directly across the street. If you take the sea route, it is no more than 400 meters from the marina and onto the shore past the bridge, he explains to the newspaper.
According to Josefsen, it is now starting to pile up with cars on the E6 that do not get anywhere.
– A guy I talked to had driven all the way from Oslo, he was going to Kirkenes and wanted to drive through Norway to see the country. Now he is stuck, and must take a detour via Finland, says Josefsen.
Taken by the flood
One year ago, the Badderelv bridge at E6 in North Troms was taken by the spring flood. This was the bridge used at the old E6. The flood caused such severe erosion that the land vessel collapsed, and the bridge fell into the river.
The bridge on the old E6 in Kvænangen was destroyed by the flood a year ago. Photo: Karl Martin Eriksen / Statens Vegvesen
sea view
Since then, the old bridge was demolished, and only the bridge on the new E6 was used.
At that time, senior engineer Karl Martin Eriksen informed that it was close that the bridge on the new E6 was also destroyed.
– When the bridge collapsed, we could expect the river to dig through the road embankment on the old E6 loop and then steer straight towards the embankment on the current E6. If this had happened, it would probably have taken 10-15 minutes before the river roughed through today’s E6 about 20-30 meters from the bridge.
– Then today’s bridge would also collapse, and E6 would be broken for several days. It could also cause major damage to the equestrian center, the marina and other buildings in Badderen.
This is what Karl Martin Eriksen says in a press release from the Norwegian Public Roads Administration from 2021.
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