Bridge Collapse in Gudbrandsdalen, Norway: 2 Vehicles Affected By The Collapse

At around 07:37 AM the morning of August 15 2022, Tretten Bru had a complete bridge collapse in Gudbrandsdalen, Norway. Photos from the scene shows a complete collapse, and one car fell into the water.

The car in the water contained two persons, and they have both been accounted for, but it’s still not publicly known how they are doing. However, they are said to be doing fine all things considered.

The police are currently not sure if everyone has been accounted for. They fear that there could still be people who have fallen into the water.

Tretten Bru
Tretten Bru before the collapse. Photo by Jan-Tore Egge / CC BY-SA 4.0.

In addition to the car in the water, there’s also a truck that were on the bridge during the collapse. This did however not fall into the water, and the police are currently trying to rescue it.

The police believes that no people have been killed or severely injured from the collapse at this time.

Tretten Bru

Tretten Bru, translating to Tretten Bridge, is a rather new bridge made completely from wood. The bridge opened in 2012, so it’s just around 10 years old at the time of the collapse.

The bridge is located in Øyer Municipality in the Gudbrandsdalen region, and is one of the main bridges used to cross the river. The two-lane bridge was 148 meters long and 10 meters wide.

Tretten bridge is located just beside E6, and crosses the famous river Gudbrandsdalslågen. This river is known to be a great salmon river.

The police and road services urges everyone who needs to cross the river to plan ahead, because they expect long queues for the alternative routes today.

Tretten Bru prior to the bridge collapse in Gudbrandsdalen
Tretten Bru prior to the bridge collapse in Gudbrandsdalen. Photo by Jan-Tore Egge / CC BY-SA 4.0.

Bridge collapse from similar bridges

There is still no information regarding what exactly happened to cause the bridge collapse in Gudbrandsdalen, but more will likely be known in the coming days.

However, a bridge with nearly identical construction collapsed back in 2016 (Perkolo bru), so we might very well learn that there are structural issues with these types of bridges.

Sources

Below are some of the Norwegian sources used for this article. These have some good photos of the bridge collapse.

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