RM OF CLAYTON — The engineer that designed a bridge in the RM of Clayton that collapsed within hours of opening to the public has been suspended from practice for 18 months.
The Dyck Memorial Bridge collapsed on Sept. 14, 2018.
By an order of an Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Saskatchewan discipline hearing issued on July 12, Scott Gullacher was suspended as an association member for 558 days, starting June 8, 2022.
After that suspension ends on Dec. 18, all engineering work performed by Gullacher is subject to direct supervision for three years by an engineer with 10 or more years experience. During that time, Gullacher must complete five hours of verifiable ethics training each year.
Gullacher is not permitted to practice professional engineering with respect to bridges and bridge projects for five years. Once those five years are over, Gullacher will have to make an application to the association if he wants to work on bridge projects.
As well, Gullacher must pay the maximum fine of $15,000, plus $32,000 to pay for the association’s cost for their investigations and hearings.
In June 2022, the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Saskatchewan held a discipline hearing for Scott Gullacher to investigate five counts of professional misconduct, four of which were connected to the collapse of the bridge.
On Jan. 24, the hearing's panel issued a written decision that stated Gullacher was found guilty of three of those counts, two of which were connected to the collapse of the bridge.
It determined that Gullacher did not practice in a careful and diligent manner because he chose to proceed with design and construction work without doing a site-specific subsurface investigation, and did not provide adequate engineering designs for the helical piles used in the foundation system for the bridge.
The final count related to five other municipal bridges, one located in each of the RMs of Scott, Caledonia and Mervin and two located in the RM of Purdue. The designs prepared by Gullacher for the five municipal bridges lacked relevant design information, including inaccurate representation of bridge designs, numerous Canadian Highway Bridge Design Code deficiencies, lack of critical detail on plans for welding details, among other deficiencies. This resulted in five superstructure designs that were inadequate to carry the minimum loads required by the code.
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