Engineer who designed doomed rural bridge can resume work in Sask. later this year

The collapsed bridge is seen in the Regional Municipality of Clayton in a Tuesday, Sept. 18, 2018, handout photo. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-Duane Hicks)

An engineer who designed a doomed bridge in rural Saskatchewan can resume practicing later this year as long as he's not working on a similar structure.

In September 2018, the Dyck Memorial Bridge in the RM of Clayton collapsed hours after it opened. The engineer responsible, Scott Gullacher, was found guilty of three counts of professional misconduct earlier this year.

He was barred from practicing in June 2022, pending the outcome of the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Saskatchewan (APEGS) discipline process.

In its final order related to Gullacher's misconduct charges, the provincial regulator ruled that Gullacher's conduct warranted an 18-month suspension, backdated retroactively to when he was first stripped of the right to practice — meaning he can resume work as an engineer in Saskatchewan in December.

If Gullacher resumes practicing in the province, he will be subjected to three years of supervision and must complete five hours of ethics training annually during that time. He's also banned from working on bridges and bridge projects in Saskatchewan for five years.

After the five-year period elapses, Gullacher can seek to remove the restriction through an application to the regulator.

"The hearing panel recognizes that the misconduct arose, at least in part, from the member’s failure to recognize his own limitations and not from conscious malfeasance," the APEGS decision said.

"Rather, the member took on these projects believing that he was providing professional engineering services in a careful and diligent manner."

Gullacher was also slapped with the maximum fine of $15,000 and forced to pay $32,000 in costs related to the APEGS investigation into his conduct.

According to the final APEGS order, Gullacher paid $250,000 out his own pocket to repair the collapsed bridge and apologized to the RMs affected by his actions.

In its judgement rendered earlier this year, APEGS said Gullacher failed to practice in a "careful and diligent manner" by not employing a site-specific subsurface analysis and by not providing "adequate designs" for the Dyck Memorial Bridge's foundation system.

The third misconduct charge APEGS found Gullacher guilty of related to bridge work in the RM of Scott, the RM of Caledonia, the RM of Mervin and two other projects in the RM of Purdue.

The APEGS hearing panel found "numerous code deficiencies" and missing "crucial" details for welding plans — among other issues.

In its final order, the regulator also ruled that Gullacher must work under a mentor with no less than ten years of experience for a three-year period after his supervisory term ends.

Gullacher obtained his professional engineering designation in 2013, according to APEGS.

According to the APEGS decision, Gullacher is currently "living and working out-of-province" but hopes to return home to Saskatchewan and resume working as a professional engineer.