Demolition has begun on Cincinnati's Big Mac Bridge after a fire damaged the structure on Nov. 1. The Ohio DOT expects repairs to finish by March, pending weather conditions and the arrival of custom components. The cause of the fire remains under investigation, but efforts to prevent similar incidents in the future are underway.
Photo courtesy of ODOT
Close-up inspections by ODOT on Nov. 15 and 16 found even more damage on the deck, bearings and girders than was revealed initially.
Demolition efforts began Nov. 29 on portions of the Daniel Carter Beard Bridge over the Ohio River in Cincinnati as crews continue to repair damage from a fire that broke out beneath the bridge Nov. 1.
Photo courtesy of ODOT
In a Nov. 27 press conference, officials of the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) said the bridge is expected to reopen by early next March. However, that all depends on how long it takes for custom-made components to arrive in Cincinnati and the severity of this winter's weather.
The Enquirer reported that the demolition work on the damaged portions of the bridge is expected to be finished in mid-December, followed by the start of the span's reconstruction in January.
The blaze under the Ohio approach to the bridge significantly damaged the southbound lanes of the Interstate 471 span, causing the most impaired parts to be removed and replaced.
The Daniel Carter Beard's structural stability also was compromised in the fire, making it unsafe for anyone to be on top of or below the bridge to conduct inspections or begin repairs until it was stabilized, according to the Enquirer.
In fact, the structure was so badly damaged that officials initially worried it was in danger of collapse, although those concerns have since diminished.
Since the blaze, teams made up of hundreds of people from more than two dozen companies had been working on engineering and design of a demolition and re-construction plan and obtaining the custom-made items needed to make the repairs, according to ODOT.
Installation of a second round of shoring towers began Nov. 25 after the concrete foundation cured over the previous weekend on the highway structure connecting Cincinnati and Newport, Ky., known colloquially as the Big Mac Bridge.
The erection of those towers, completed just before Thanksgiving Day, were needed to provide additional support directly to the damaged section of southbound I-471 before any demolition work could begin.
Close-up inspections by ODOT on Nov. 15 and 16 found even more damage on the deck, bearings and girders than was revealed initially.
Those inspections also discovered that in addition to a fourth girder that will need to be replaced, the deck had separated from the girders, leaving a sizable portion of the deck unsupported, ODOT said.
Engineers razing the damaged portions of the Daniel Carter Beard Bridge are following a customized procedure that they devised in the weeks prior to the demolition.
Photo courtesy of ODOT
The plan for the concrete deck alone is 224 pages long, according to ODOT, and detailed everything from where cuts should be made to where equipment should be placed and how to safely offload weight from the warped deck. Along with this is a separate demolition plan for the girders, which is just as detailed and complex, the Cincinnati newspaper noted.
These specialized demolition strategies are necessary to ensure the approach remains stable for the safety of the public and workers, the state transportation agency said.
While ODOT engineers have been designing the custom-demolition plans, another team has been contacting nearly two dozen steel fabricators to determine which company will be able to expedite production of the girders that need to be replaced.
The transportation agency and Great Lakes Construction conversed daily with these girder manufacturers on ways to shorten the process; utilize available components; and reduce fabrication time, ODOT noted prior to the demolition.
Officials Still Investigating Fire's Cause
In the early morning hours of Nov. 1, just after 3 a.m., the Cincinnati Fire Department (CFD) was called to a fire on Pete Rose Way under the Daniel Carter Beard Bridge. Upon arrival, firefighters discovered a large outdoor fire at a playground in Sawyer Point Park directly under the approach span. At the height of the fire, smoke and flames were seen billowing around and above I-471.
Photo courtesy of ODOT
The cause of the fire remains under investigation by CFD's Fire Investigative Unit, spokesperson Lindsay Lomax Haegele said Nov. 26 in speaking with the Enquirer. She could not say how much longer that would take, but she did respond to one recurring theory about the fire's origin.
"Many have speculated that the fire originated from a person or people experiencing homelessness, however, this speculation cannot currently be confirmed or denied," Haegele said in a prepared statement. "Sharing information too soon can compromise the integrity of the investigation by jeopardizing witness safety, alerting potential suspects and revealing crucial strategies."
After the fire broke out along the banks of the Ohio River, flames reached more than 40 ft. high, causing some witnesses to think a vehicle was ablaze on the roadway. Even after the main fire was extinguished, flames were still rekindling after seven hours.
Partly in response to federal memos asking states to address the storage of flammable materials under bridges, officials have been working for the past several years to do just that, Matt Bruning, an ODOT spokesperson, told the Enquirer.
Those efforts resulted in crews removing flammable items away from several other Cincinnati road bridges, he said, adding that a review of public records did not show concerns about the playground equipment and mulch underneath the Daniel Carter Beard Bridge.
Bruning added that, "What exactly burned and how did it burn," will be two intriguing questions for ODOT and fire investigators to answer in the weeks ahead. CEG
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