Engineer suspended over collapsed bridge facing further discipline

Scott O. Gullacher won’t be building bridges anytime soon.

The Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Saskatchewan (APEGS), which is the regulator of engineering and geoscience in Saskatchewan, has suspended Gullacher’s licence for 18 months.

Afterwards, Gullacher will be placed under supervision for three years.

The APEGS discipline committee found Gullacher guilty on three counts of professional misconduct related to the Dyck Memorial Bridge — which collapsed in September 2018 in the RM of Clayton, north of Yorkton — as well as one municipal bridge in each of the RMs of Scott, Caledonia and Mervin and two bridges in the RM of Purdue.

For the Dyck Memorial Bridge, Gullacher was found to have “not practised in a careful and diligent manner by not employing a site-specific geotechnical analysis and by not providing adequate engineering designs for the helical pile foundations,” according to a release sent out by APEGS on Monday.

The Dyck Memorial Bridge opened to traffic on the morning of Sept. 14, 2018. But later that same day, part of the deck collapsed into the Swan River below. No one was injured.

The release said the designs made 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,” the release stated.

“This resulted in five superstructure designs which were inadequate to carry the minimum loads required by the code.”

Gullacher’s suspension began June 8, 2022 and is scheduled to last approximately 18 months.

Following the suspension, Gullacher’s engineering work will be subject to three years of direct supervision. He also won’t be permitted to take on any projects involving bridges for five years.

“During the period of direct supervision, Gullacher must successfully complete five hours of verifiable ethics training each year,” the release said.“Gullacher is required to pay the maximum fine of $15,000 and pay $32,000 toward APEGS’ investigation costs.”

— With files from The Canadian Press