Northern span of Traffic Bridge comes crashing down

A modest crowd gathered on the Broadway Bridge Sunday morning to watch another span of the old Traffic Bridge bridge come crashing down.

With a thunderous boom, the most-northern section of the bridge exploded on its south side before nose diving onto the dirt berm below. The explosion elicited a few cheers from the couple hundred people who crammed onto the small section of the Broadway Bridge outside the exclusion zone.

“I’m happy to say everything went successfully,” transportation utilities department special projects manager Dan Willems said.

Explosives were only used on one side of the span so that when it fell it, the northern half wouldn’t fall onto and damage the walkway and retaining walls below.

Two of the southern spans of the bridge were demolished on Jan. 10 and thousands of people packed the Broadway Bridge to watch. 

Willems said construction crews will now clear away the fallen span and remove the northern berm it fell onto. The southern berm will stay as crews repair the supports and begin construction of the southern half of the new Traffic Bridge.

“Hopefully by the end of the summer we’ll have the first new south span erected,” he said.

The final span of the Traffic Bridge will be demolished next winter.