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The Heron Road Bridge is a bridge in Ottawa Canada. It connects Baseline Road and Heron Road passing over both the Rideau River and the Rideau Canal just south of Carleton University. The bridge was built in 1966, and its construction saw one of the worst accidents in Ottawa history. On August 10, 1966 the partially completed south span of the bridge collapsed, killing nine workers and injuring another fifty-five. The $100,000 inquest put the blame on the use of green lumber and the lack of diagonal bracing on the wooden support forms, causing a collapse as cement was being poured. As a result of the findings, the Association of Professional Engineers of Ontario suspended two of its members, reprimanded a third, and the construction company was fined $5,000; the maximum penalty under the existing Construction Safety Act. And after very little delay, the province of Ontario’s construction safety standards were completely rewritten. [1] Just to the west of the bridge, there is today a plaque honouring the nine workers killed.
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