The municipalities of the City of North Vancouver and the District of North Vancouver haven't figured out how to repair missing railings. The problem is that the railing is longer than the distance between the posts by four inches. A scarf joint would work!

If the time comes and someone is injured, or worse, will there be a lawsuit launched against the municipalities?

How to Scarf a Joint

The length of a scarf joint should be at least four times the width of the stock.

The trickiest part of a scarf joint is getting the angle for the joint. Most people recommend a 8:1 or 12:1 scarf angle. 8:1 is usually sufficient, but different builders have different preferences.

Popular Mechanics Scarf Joint

Scarfing plywood also makes a very strong, smooth joint and it does not require fiberglass tape or a two-stage gluing process. It does, however, require some preparation and since you are overlapping the ply instead of butting it, your resulting plank is slightly shorter than either of the previous methods. Make sure you take this into account before starting.