SKUI (VG) The lorry owner risks having to pay compensation after the demolition of the footbridge over the E16 in Bærum.
A truck with a slightly too high crane tore down the largest concrete element that formed the footbridge between Skui and Sollihøgda just before the weekend getaway last Friday.
The driver was alone in the lorry, and came away uninjured from the incident – where the several-tonne bridge came crashing down onto the crane’s loading platform.
Fortunately, there was neither walking on the bridge nor driving under the bridge when the accident occurred.
Is in dialogue
The Norwegian Public Roads Administration is now preparing a compensation claim against the company that owns and operates the truck.
It was the local paper The messenger in Asker and Bærum who first reported the case.
– This is, after all, a case of damage to public property. Then it is common for a compensation case to be filed, says section manager Gunnar Eiterjord in the operation and maintenance section of the Norwegian Road Administration to VG.
He adds that they are in dialogue with the company that owns the truck.
– We are in a process on this now, says Eiterjord.’
– Will the footbridge be restored?
– This is a footbridge on the old E16, which will soon become a county road when the new E16 is finished on the Skui-Sollihøgda stretch. Then it will probably be up to the new road owner to assess what needs to be done, replies Eiterjord.
He points out that there will be much less car traffic on this old road when the new multi-lane E16 is put into operation.
Not the first time
It rarely happens that drivers of large trucks – often with cranes – are unable to calculate the height of the bridge or tunnel they are driving under.
Under The E18 bridge that runs through Sandvika – also in Bærum – it has happened several times that trucks have crashed into the bridge element.
In Bergen in the autumn of 2021, a concrete truck with the pump arm high in the air smashed into a footbridge at Fantoft. Nor were there any injuries as a result of the demolition.
Operations manager in the police, Tatjana Knappen, thought the driver had simply forgotten to take down the concrete pump before the person drove off.