CINCINNATI (WXIX) - Demolition on the Daniel Carter Beard Bridge is now underway after a fire damaged a portion of it on Nov. 1. Part of the northbound lanes are open, but the southbound lanes are closed. Ohio Department of Transportation public information officer Kathleen Fuller says the work being done to repair the bridge is very precise as they take down just the damaged areas. “We don’t want to jeopardize the structural integrity of everything that’s good,” Fuller explained. “The stuff that hasn’t been damaged can be saved, we just need to replace what’s been damaged.” Fuller described the work that started Friday as surgical demolition. “They’re basically, I describe it as pecking holes, pecking small sections of the concrete deck apart and they’ll move from one location to another location on the deck.” Fuller says that all the northbound lanes should be open by the end of the year. Construction on the southbound lanes should start in January. By March 2025, all work is expected to be complete. “It’s actually a very aggressive schedule,” Fuller described. “For those who don’t understand why it’s not being done more quickly or more readily, it simply couldn’t. There’s so many variables as to why it’s taking the time that it has.” One of those variables is stability. ODOT had to ensure it was safe for the crews to work on the bridge before demolition could start. One of the biggest concerns for Tri-State travelers is traffic. Fuller says Cincinnati, Newport and Covington have made changes to signal times to try and lessen the traffic as people use other bridges to cross between Kentucky and Cincinnati. “It’s really about people planning ahead, being mindful of the traffic and congestion that they’re going to face and just allow that extra time,” Fuller stressed. ODOT says crews will be working as hard and as quickly as they can, only stopping when the weather makes it necessary for their safety.
Previous Work
On Nov. 11,
shoring towers were installed to stabilize the Big Mac Bridge and to make it safer for crews to begin work. This involved 15 truckloads of concrete to create a base and several towers, which are about 65-by-15 feet. During that time, ODOT and its partners were working on a demolition plan, however, this would not be just like every other demolition. Fuller described it as a surgical operation because there was no bridge support. “We just couldn’t start dismantling the damaged portion of the bridge - that just wasn’t going to happen - and we knew that we needed this detailed demo plan,” she explained. “So, for the last couple of weeks, that is what our crews, our folks had been working on.” Fuller added that the steel plate and girder designs are unique, so it has been difficult to find a fabricator shop to customize the materials, let alone a steel mill to create the plates due to its high demand. She says ODOT and Great Lakes Construction have been working with numerous girder manufacturers with more than 20 fabrication shops to give them the shortest timeline.
Steel supply is low, demand is high
Steel has been in high demand for years amid a sharp rise in construction and infrastructure projects and especially after supply chain disruptions during the COVID-19 pandemic. Several major disasters have swept through the U.S. prior to the fire underneath the Daniel Carter Beard Bridge, such as the collapse of the
Francis Scott Key Bridge that happened in March, and
damages caused by Hurricanes Helene and Milton in Florida, Tennessee and North Carolina. These hard-hit areas will
need steel to recover. Fuller reminded the press that there is a high demand for steel beams and girders because of these major infrastructure projects, which could affect the finished repair date. “Not only are we in competition with that, we’re also in competition with all of the construction projects around the country where these companies have already been contracted with various DOTs from around the country, various agencies to fabricate their materials,” she explained. This week, ODOT was able to contract with
Stupp Bridge to fabricate the girders in its Bowling Green, Kentucky facility.
Nucor Steel will manufacture the steel that will be used to make the girders. All of the components are expected to arrive by mid-January, Fuller said. Additionally, a new concrete deck will need to be poured along with the deck’s parapet walls. More than 7,600 square feet of deck will be replaced.
What caused the fire?
The cause of the fire, which ignited a wood and rubber playground at Sawyer Point Park under the bridge, remains under investigation by the Cincinnati Fire Department. Fire officials are being tight-lipped about their probe. This week, they sent out a news release addressing
“speculation” that it possibly involved a homeless person or homeless people. “The Cincinnati Fire Department administration has been getting frequent, recurring questions about the cause of the fire underneath the Daniel Carter Beard Bridge (I-471) three weeks ago. The cause of the fire is still being actively investigated by the Fire Investigative Unit (FIU). There is currently nothing to share about the duration or timeline of that investigation,” fire officials said. “Many have speculated that the fire originated from a person or people experiencing homelessness, however, this speculation cannot currently be confirmed or denied, as the FIU investigation regarding the I-471 bridge is ongoing. Sharing information too soon can compromise the integrity of the investigation by jeopardizing witness safety, alerting potential suspects and revealing crucial strategies. For this reason, until the FIU has a definitive reason to share, we will not be able to share anything.”
‘Isn’t this like the Brent Spence Bridge fire?’
In 2020, the Brent Spence Bridge, a major double-decker bridge connecting Ohio and Kentucky, was
damaged by a large fire after a commercial truck jack-knifed and a second truck carrying potassium hydroxide crashed. It took 41 days for the
bridge to reopen. Bruning says many have asked if the I-471 bridge incident is the same as what happened with the Brent Spence. He answered no. “When I was talking to our engineers who were involved in that incident as well, they basically told me, ‘There’s really only two things that are similar between the two incidents: 1) They were both bridges, 2) They both involved fires. Beyond that, very very different,’” Bruning explained. He went onto say that the stability of the Brent Spence Bridge was never an issue, unlike the Daniel Carter Beard Bridge. No shoring towers needed to be installed, no demolition “surgery,” and not as many custom-made designs.
Who’s paying?
Bruning says ODOT will pay foot the bill for the emergency repair project and will pursue
federal reimbursement since Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine declared a state of emergency. The cost of the project is unknown at this time, but Bruning says he expects it to cost millions.
See a spelling or grammar error in our story? Please click here to report it . Do you have a photo or video of a breaking news story? Send it to us here with a brief description.
