Clarksville, TN – Bell & Associates Construction blasted out the remaining concrete columns and the roadway support beams on the Red River Bridge in a tremendous explosion on Wednesday night, January 19th, 2011. The explosion took place at 10:14:05pm during which time traffic on Wilma Rudolph Blvd was completely shutdown.
The process began by cutting almost completely through the massive steel support beams, then placing shaped cutting charges to finish the job. The support columns had been pre-drilled to allow explosive charges to be placed inside. Once that was complete, all equipment located on or near the bridge had to be removed. Then after a final safety check and a series of long blasts on the horn, it was time for the blast.
As the detonation was triggered, fire could be seen racing through the det cord at 7,000-8,000 meters per second. The shaped charges kicked off first slicing through the support steel, then the bursting charges in the support columns went off instantly pulverizing them.
Media had been ordered out of the area directly adjacent to the bridge by the state fire marshal for safety purposes, but an intern from APSU who works with one of the other area media outlets violated the safety zone, clambering down a cliff side unobserved to the water level a short distance from the bridge to record video, and as a result was pelted by flying debris. This could have easily been a fatal choice as some of the flying chunks were quite large. Luckily, he was uninjured.
After the smoke cleared the two steel support beams could be seen rising out of the river on either side. A few minutes later the road was re-opened.
The demolition proceeded under a special permit from the State Fire Marshal’s Office. Typically explosive demolition is limited to daylight hours. That was impractical in this case due to the amount of traffic the road supports during the day.
The blast marks the end of phase one of the planned construction, and the beginning of phase two. They will now build the south bound lane portion of the new bridge. Phase two should be complete sometime this summer. This project should be completely done by November of this year.
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We heard it all the way over near 101st, in the Bel Aire subdivison.
What a blast !