Davis Avenue Bridge demolition causes broken windows, no surprises
The Davis Avenue Bridge fell with two loud, echoing booms Wednesday as explosives severed its supports and collapsed it onto Woods Run Avenue 70 feet below.
Contractors for Controlled Demolition Inc. imploded the 110-year-old bridge at 2 p.m., less than a month after a consultant said the bridge was so deteriorated it could collapse.
"I'm just tickled to death," Doug Loizeaux, vice president of Phoenix, Md.-based CDI, said afterward. "I think we'll be way ahead of schedule on the cleanup."
About 73 pounds of explosives packed against the bridge detonated in about a half second, bringing the bridge down center-first, Loizeaux said. The detonation was delayed for about a minute by gawkers on the Shadeland Avenue Bridge, who were moved before the demolition could continue, Public Safety Director Michael Huss said.
Shock from the explosion and flying debris broke 23 windows in 12 homes. All structures within a quarter-mile were evacuated, officials from the Bureau of Building Inspection said. Workers covered windows with plywood and glass-fitters were expected to make repairs quickly, according to Mayor Luke Ravenstahl's office.
Flying debris peppered houses as far as far as four lots from the bridge. Debris appeared to have broken a window in a sunroom projecting from the front of Rose Stringer's home, whose house wasn't draped with protective fabric like others close to the bridge.
"I asked them three times to cover my house," Stringer said, returning home shortly after the demolition. "It can be fixed, but it's the inconvenience, it's the principle of the thing."
CDI President Mark Loizeaux said the company determined which houses to cover based on experience.
"We just did the best we could with the information we had," he said. Inspectors checked and photographed houses before the blast, and the city will pay for repairs, he said.
After dust cleared, crews from CDI checked the explosives and then utility workers checked gas and electrical lines. The gas lines, usually sensitive to damage, appeared unharmed. Workers will check seismic sensors to determine if the blast damaged an old brick sewer beneath the road, Loizeaux said.
Less than an hour after the implosion, crews began clearing steel and concrete heaped two stories high in the middle of Woods Run, which Loizeaux said should reopen within two weeks.
About 200 homes were evacuated; most people were able to return by 4 p.m. Teams of police checked on a few who waited to leave until the last minute, and then tied yellow ribbons on doors and porches of the vacated homes.
"I'm stuck to this house, that's all. My great-grandfather built it back in 1896," Henry Lattner, 56, said about his home before agreeing to walk a few houses down, outside the evacuation zone.
After the blast, April Cesnalis, 56, waited anxiously for police to let her check her small brick home.
"I've been praying," said Cesnalis, standing at the police checkpoint about a block from her house. A curve in the road obstructed her view. "I'm a nervous wreck over this."
Money to replace the bridge, which was closed to vehicles for nine years, was in state transportation plans for 2012.
