NORTHEAST — Most of the Route 20 bridge over Twenty Mile Creek in North East Township collapsed earlier than expected Wednesday morning.
The bridge has been closed since February due to deterioration and other safety issues. It was removed this fall and will be replaced next year.
An excavator was demolishing a span of the bridge on Wednesday when two other spans and two of the bridge's three concrete support pillars unexpectedly fell down. A span is the part of the bridge between support pillars.
The bridge's third support pillar and the span where the excavator was working remained standing.
No one was injured, said Jillian Harry, spokeswoman for the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation.
“While we're doing that kind of work, we're making sure everyone is in a safe place,” Harry said.
Video originally posted to Facebook showed the excavator working on the bridge when the spans and pillars in front of it collapsed.
“I know a lot of people who see the video will interpret it differently than we do at PennDOT,” Harry said. “We knew the bridge had to come down; that's why we closed it. And we were going to take it down in a similar fashion. What we see in the video is that everyone is safe.”
When will the demolition be carried out?
Demolition of the bridge began Monday and was to proceed one span at a time, with debris cleared from the creek before the next span was taken down. Demolition is expected to be completed by the end of next week.
Now all the collapsed spans will be removed before the bridge's only remaining span is demolished, Harry said.
The bridge was built in 1973.
The contractor for the $9.6 million demolition and replacement project is Butler County-based Mekis Construction.
Contact Valerie Myers at [email protected].
This article originally appeared on the Erie Times-News: Northeast Bridge Collapsed Wednesday Before It Could Be Demolished
