On the night of August 15, a large portion of the Grand Avenue Bridge collapsed during construction. Luckily no one was injured.
The 64-year-old Grand Avenue Bridge is in the middle of getting torn down to make way for a new structure that's wider and longer. The project is expected to cost around $126 million. Unfortunately, on the night of Tuesday, August 15, there was a collapse of a 210-foot piece of the bridge that damaged two columns that were in place for the new bridge. The damage will likely add to the costs of the project and may even cause some delays. Dave Eller, regional transportation director for the Colorado Department of Transportation, told the Post Independence, "Contractors were following the approved, very precise safety plan when this happened." He continued on, saying that "there were no injuries, there was no private property damage and there was no damage to the railroad tracks." The collapse happened as workers were pulling two of the attached girders from the old bridge. Eller said that the rebar was damaged on the columns that will be supporting the piers on the south end of the Colorado River. The bridge spans are made from six girders in three different sections, and the plan was to remove two girders at a time.You plan the deconstruction process as best you can, but events like this are not unusual or unexpected when you are taking down large, old structures like the bridge," said Tom Newland, the public information manager for the project.That Wednesday, crews were in the process of removing the 16 tons of steel that fell on both the street and railroad tracks. Each of the girders were cut into sections for easier removal. There are seven shorter girders that still need to be removed, but that won't be done until the engineers are confident it's safe for removal. Those areas are located over I-70 and the river, which will make the removal process more difficult. Construction crews will be using a "much different" technique: using cranes and removing the girders one at a time.
Watch the bridge collapse below in a video captured by the Colorado Mountain College:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMcu4AefhhY
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