CKNW News Staff | Email news tips to nwnews@cknw.com
12/20/2012
First we were told it was five, then 60, now ICBC is reporting 195 vehicles were damaged when chunks of ice fell from support cables on the Port Mann Bridge.
Adam Grossman with ICBC says they don't expect too many more claims to trickle in now, and that number could go down as they notice duplicate claims or those unrelated to Wednesday's incident.
Many drivers say the new bridge failed its first test in the snow, but Mike Proudfoot, C-E-O of the Transportation Investment Corporation, the crown corporation responsible for the Port Mann insists the storm was "severe."
"It was a micro-climate kind of situation where we had some freeze-thaw cycles."
Speaking with CKNW's Mike Smyth, Proudfoot says there's a chance the bridge will have to be closed again if it snows in the near future.
As for the long term:
"We'll be looking at solutions that may be available to assure this doesn't happen again. That could be the heated cables, there's other methods such as vibrations... there's chemical treatments."
Sources have told CKNW the contractor turned down the idea of installing heated cables, Proudfoot says:"That's nothing that I'm familiar with."
Meanwhile, the Transporation Investment Corporation is waving the toll for anyone who drove the Port Mann between 10am and 6pm yesterday, and it will pay the deductable for the damaged vehicles.
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