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

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.

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.