NY-Vermont Bridge Brought Down in a Blast

Advanced Explosives Demolition, of Coeur D’Alene, Idaho, performed an explosive demolition in late December of a 2,100-foot-long bridge over Lake Champlain on the New York-Vermont border.

According to an online report from the Adirondack Daily Enterprise, the implosion company used some “800 pounds of explosives packed into more than 500 charges” to bring down the 80-year-old bridge.

The bridge was closed suddenly in October of 2009 after bridge inspectors declared it unsafe, finding that the span’s unreinforced concrete piers had suffered deterioration.

The online article from the Adirondack Daily Enterprise reported that the detonation was quiet (observers two miles away heard no explosion-related sounds) and was also difficult to see for most observers because of steady snowfall on the morning of Dec. 30, when the instant demolition took place.

Removal of the debris from the lake is expected to take place throughout January. Because the span’s absence creates detours of up to 100 miles, construction of a new bridge is scheduled to begin in the spring of 2010 with a goal of completion in the summer of 2011. Additionally, loading docks for a temporary ferry are being constructed near the site of the old bridge.

An online report from a Vermont television station estimates that 45 workers, 30 pieces of machinery and six barges will be deployed in the process to recover and the steel and concrete pieces of the old bridge.

Footage of the detonation shot through the snow by Vermont television station WCAX can be found at this link:

http://www.wcax.com/global/video.asp?clipId=4417957&autostart=true .