Lane on Mercier Bridge closed, website hacked
Lane on Mercier Bridge closed, website hacked
Lane on Mercier Bridge closed, website hacked
Richard Tardif
The Eastern Door
Yet another Mercier Bridge emergency repair on one of two Montreal inbound lanes on Thursday frustrated commuters and renewed skepticism on the safety of the old bridge.
On Wednesday, Transport Quebec spotted what they reported to be a “worrisome” crack in one of the concrete slabs of the bridge, reported to be several centimetres long.
According to Transport Québec spokesperson Claudia Goulet, one lane of the span was closed and reopened to traffic hours later after a metal plate was placed over the crack as a temporary measure.
However, the lane was closed again at 7 p.m. and remained closed on Thursday so Transport Quebec could fully repair the crack.
“We did plan on having the repairs complete by Thursday evening,” Goulet said, yet she later confirmed that the lane would also be closed today, beginning at 10 a.m. and ending in the evening.
The lane was not open for the afternoon rush hour on Thursday.
Commuters can be forgiven for feeling skeptical.
Last Saturday evening, motorists crossed the troubled span in darkness while Transport Quebec attempted to reconnect the bridge’s lighting system, discovering that a wire had become unplugged. The transport minister blamed the intense cold temperatures for the wire becoming unplugged.
Two weeks ago, the Kahnawake outbound span was closed without any notice to enact emergency repairs to a gusset plate, after the Montreal Gazette reported that a bolt had been found, presumably fallen from one of the gusset plates worked on over the summer.
The repair was not the only problem bridge authorities had to deal with.
Thursday morning, CJAD reported that the JCCBI website had been hacked reportedly by an organization that calls itself Team Kuwaiti Hackers.
The home page of the Mercier Bridge website featured an image similar to that of the Joker from the Batman series.
The group claims to have recently launched attacks on several websites in Israel including that of the Israeli Boy Scouts.
“Everything seems to be under control,” said Goulet, who later confirmed that the hack had occurred on the Jacques Cartier Champlain Bridge Incorporation site, not on the Transport Quebec site.
JCCBI Spokesperson Jean Vincent Lacroix confirmed that their Mercier Bridge page was hacked.
“Spam had entered the code but we were quick to take notice and get the site back up running,” he told THE EASTERN DOOR.
While he could not provide any further details, he said the site is set up mainly to provide information about the rehabilitation project and the information is available to everyone.
