Work crews worked hard throughout the night and were finally able to remove several rail cars stuck on the broken Bonnybrook Bridge in southeast Calgary.
According to a release from the city, the cars were successfully removed at about 2 a.m.
All of the chemicals were successfully pumped out of the damaged cars and crews say that not a single drop made it into the Bow River.
Once all the chemicals were out of the tanks, the train was uncoupled in the middle and then the cars would be carefully pulled off of the bridge and onto land.
A cable was threaded throughout each side of the tanker cars to help support them and make sure they didn’t tip into the river.
Acting Fire Chief Ken Uzeloc updated the situation on Friday morning, saying that it would have been a catastrophic situation if any of the railcars ruptured. "You had five railcars full of flammable liquid which, if they ruptured, could have leaked into the river. You also had railcars that if they had gone into the river, they would have floated down and run into other bridge abutments or cause damage further down."
Hunter Harrison, the CEO of CP, had said bridge piers at the bottom of the river failed, and that engineers blamed the failure on fast water scouring away gravel under the support.
Meanwhile, Mayor Nenshi had harsh words for the company on Thursday morning, saying there are many questions that need to be answers about such an issue.
"I'll be very blunt. I'll probably get in trouble for saying this - we've seen a lot of people lose their jobs at CP over the last year. How many bridge inspectors did they fire? These are the questions that we need to understand much much better after we assure the safety of the water and the safety of everyone who is there."
Nenshi said that seeking answers to those questions would have to wait until the state of emergency has been called off.
The Transportation Safety Board of Canada is investigating the incident.
All of the road closures in the area have now been lifted.
(With files from CTVNews.ca)
