The association that regulates professional engineers in Saskatchewan has suspended Scott Gullacher for 18 months because he designed a bridge that collapsed just hours after it opened to the public.
Gullacher was responsible for the Dyck Memorial Bridge in the RM of Clayton, about 300 kilometres east of Saskatoon.
On Monday, the association released its final order related to its investigation into Gullacher’s misconduct, including the bridge collapse — described in the document as a “catastrophic failure” — and other projects.
The association determined that Gullacher didn’t operate in a “careful and diligent manner” on the Dyck Memorial Bridge, because he did not employ a site-specific geotechnical analysis and did not provide adequate engineering designs for the helical pile foundations.
The start of Gullacher’s suspension is backdated to June 8, 2022 — the date he was ordered to stop practicing professionally in the province.
During the investigation process, Gullacher testified that he paid $250,000 out of his own pocket to repair the collapsed Dyck Memorial Bridge, according to the association.
Good that this chap is suspended and probably blacklisted by now, but let’s not forget that structures like this aren’t simply designed by a single person and then put into production.
Other engineers will have checked the designs thoroughly to find errors and issues. Whomever signed off on his work should also be closely scrutinised.
If it turns out he someone got his designs built with no oversight, then I would say the issue runs much deeper. Is it incompetence on the part of the company? Or does it go further. How many other companies may also be slipping through the cracks with improperly tested structures, etc.
I worked for a structural engineering firm, and you’re going to be disappointed about the dilligence and competence of oversight. It’s projects like these that result in additional reviews and investigations, but civil engineering is one of those things that governments stop funding when it’s working well.
Everyone forgets why they need inspectors and regulators and qualified reviews documented in triplicate. Businesses need to grow, after all, and these derned taxes and red tape are just gumming up the works. So everyone relaxes to the point where one overworked moron is responsible for the safety and structural integrity of six bridges in a remote part of Canada, and then one of them falls down.
In this case, they spent under $400k to build a bridge, and the engineer didn’t even do a geotechnical survey for the helical piles. He also failed to provide welding details, but the eyewitness reports say that it looked like the ground under the piles gave way from below, which wouldn’t be caused by imsufficient welds.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
The association that regulates professional engineers in Saskatchewan has suspended Scott Gullacher for 18 months because he designed a bridge that collapsed just hours after it opened to the public.
Gullacher was responsible for the Dyck Memorial Bridge in the RM of Clayton, about 300 kilometres east of Saskatoon.
On Monday, the association released its final order related to its investigation into Gullacher’s misconduct, including the bridge collapse — described in the document as a “catastrophic failure” — and other projects.
The association determined that Gullacher didn’t operate in a “careful and diligent manner” on the Dyck Memorial Bridge, because he did not employ a site-specific geotechnical analysis and did not provide adequate engineering designs for the helical pile foundations.
The start of Gullacher’s suspension is backdated to June 8, 2022 — the date he was ordered to stop practicing professionally in the province.
During the investigation process, Gullacher testified that he paid $250,000 out of his own pocket to repair the collapsed Dyck Memorial Bridge, according to the association.
I’m a bot and I’m open source!
Good that this chap is suspended and probably blacklisted by now, but let’s not forget that structures like this aren’t simply designed by a single person and then put into production.
Other engineers will have checked the designs thoroughly to find errors and issues. Whomever signed off on his work should also be closely scrutinised.
If it turns out he someone got his designs built with no oversight, then I would say the issue runs much deeper. Is it incompetence on the part of the company? Or does it go further. How many other companies may also be slipping through the cracks with improperly tested structures, etc.
I worked for a structural engineering firm, and you’re going to be disappointed about the dilligence and competence of oversight. It’s projects like these that result in additional reviews and investigations, but civil engineering is one of those things that governments stop funding when it’s working well.
Everyone forgets why they need inspectors and regulators and qualified reviews documented in triplicate. Businesses need to grow, after all, and these derned taxes and red tape are just gumming up the works. So everyone relaxes to the point where one overworked moron is responsible for the safety and structural integrity of six bridges in a remote part of Canada, and then one of them falls down.
In this case, they spent under $400k to build a bridge, and the engineer didn’t even do a geotechnical survey for the helical piles. He also failed to provide welding details, but the eyewitness reports say that it looked like the ground under the piles gave way from below, which wouldn’t be caused by imsufficient welds.