Champlain Bridge Demolished at 10AM this morning (video included).

[garybeck]

I don't know about your state, but here in Vermont, the roads and bridges are crumbling, literally. In the last 6 years, all three bridges in my small town have had to be replaced. Before they were replaced, you could see the concrete crumbling, rusty rebar sticking out everywhere, as cars and trucks drove over. The casual onlooker knew something was wrong long before the engineers deemed them unsafe. Then the town had to scramble for funds, begging the state government for assistance, finding ourselves at the bottom of a long list of bridges in the state that need to be rebuilt, then finding some way to make it happen because having no bridge for more than a few months would be devastating.

The latest is the biggest bridge in the state, the Champlain Bridge - the only vital bridge linking New York State to Vermont across the huge Lake Champlain - with the nearest route around the lake being several extra hours.

For years I've been driving across this bridge thinking, as I did with my local bridges before they were deemed unsafe, "this one is going soon." It doesn't take a rocket scientist to look at crumbling concrete and exposed rebar to know something's not right.

Well a couple months ago, with almost no warning, the engineers did a safety inspection and shut down the bridge permanently. We have no idea when we'll have a new bridge in place. Plans for the replacement are just starting to be evaluated. It could be years.

Today the old bridge was demolished. It was determined that leaving the bridge there any longer was a danger because it was so frail it could just collapse at any time. Pretty scary thought because I had just driven my 12 ton Solar Bus over it a few weeks prior, and I was planning on going over it again just a few days after they shut it down.

Ironically, Republican Governor Jim Douglas pressed the "button" to ignite the demolition. Fitting, after demolishing the State's government for the last few years, and he has stated he will not seek re-election.

Here's a link to the local coverage of the big explosion that took place this morning at 10 am Eastern, along with a nice video including slow-motion (see right column).

Happy demolition day everyone.

http://www.wcax.com/global/story.asp?s=11736870

[SpiralHawk]

1. Sic Transit Gloria Champ

[garybeck]

2. I think that's one of the proposed new bridge types :)

[cali]

3. yep, bridges here are in worse shape than they are nationally

and I plane off the frost heaves on Rt 16 between Hardwick and Glover.

[Historic NY]

4. This is a good example of whats wrong in Albany..........

its not just this bridge but hundreds of projects put off or bandaided since at least 1995. Meanwhile millions are taken from people via taxes for the MTA which operates in the city. I can names at least a dozen road/bridge projects in my home area that never got started. When will they fail?

[garybeck]

5. I don't know what went wrong here but there should have been more inspections

i keep hearing that they were "caught off guard" by the recent inspection that showed how badly the bridge had deterioriated. Aren't they supposed to check this stuff regularly so they don't get caught off guard?

[Historic NY]

6. This bridge was yellow flagged in 2007 for concrete pier deterioration

After the Minneapolis bridge collapse the Gov.in aug 2007 ordered all bridges inspected in NY. It appears NYDOT made and inspection of the Crown Point Bridge at that time. We had a red flagged one near me that was closed immediately.

https://www.nysdot.gov/main/bridgedata

[garybeck]

7. but they didn't inspect the piers underwater until recently

and that is when they closed it.

seems like they didn't do the underwater inspection in 2007, and they should have?