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Demolition work is proceeding to plan on the old Bay Bridge in California. The structure is being removed piece by piece in a tightly controlled demolition project being carried out by a number of specialist firms. Strict guidelines cover how the demolition workers can proceed, with regulations preventing debris from falling into the water for example. Safety of the demolition personnel is another of the key criteria.

Planned demolition work continues on the Chain of Rocks Bridge in the US. The second of three planned blasts has now been carried out, successfully dropping another section of the structure into the canal beneath. The bridge used to carry Interstate 270 but has been replaced with a new structure lying close at hand. The old bridge lies just to the north of the city of St Louis, with the eastern end of the structure on Chouteau Island in Illinois and the western end is in Missouri.  The final section of the bridge will be removed in due course.

A fatal bridge collapse occurred in the US State of Ohio. The structure was under demolition when it collapsed. A demolition job was being carried out on the bridge when it collapsed unexpectedly, killing one of the workers in the process. A truck crashed into the debris as it collapsed but its driver escaped serious Injury. The bridge was located on I-75, close to the city of Cincinnati. The problem of ageing bridge structures is serious in the US and in Ohio, around one in five bridges are in need of replacement.

A US contractor has carried out a successful demolition job on a bridge using excavators fitted with hydraulic breakers. The fleet of 178 Caterpillar excavators used for the work managed to break up the ageing structure in just 11 hours. The old Pigeon Roost road bridge will now be replaced with another, more modern structure better able to carry the necessary traffic load. The 1500 Mississippi Department of Transportation filmed the job using time lapse techniques to show the 11 hour job condensed into just 49 stunning seconds.

A successful explosive demolition project for an old bridge has been carried out in the US state of Missouri. The Fairfax Bridge was constructed in 1935 and was no longer able to meet current transportation needs. Some 760m long the bridge was carrying around 6,000 vehicles/day. Another bridge was also opened nearby, the Platte Purchase Bridge, in 1957 to help the original structure carry the necessary traffic volumes. Removing the old structure of the Fairfax Bridge as well as the Platte Purchase Bridge and replacing them with a new bridge is costing around US$79 million.

There was no need for a day shift when Devon-based Gilpin Demolition took on a timely challenge - demolish an overpass bridge in 15 hours and reopen the A38 by the following morning.

The 40m long and 8m high single carriageway bridge, made of 1,400 tonnes of steel and concrete, was an overpass near Rattery. By 8PM the A38 below had been closed and the bridge carriageways were barricaded, ready for Gilpin’s first crew to arrive and lay down 400tonnes of stone road protection on the A38.

Police in Poland managed to stop a 29 year old male driver after a 30km high speed pursuit. The BMW driver hit speeds as high as 260km/h (162.5mph) in his bid to elude his pursuers. When the traffic officers inspected the vehicle they realised the car’s rear tyres were so worn they had no tread remaining, and immediately impounded this dangerous vehicle along with arresting the offender. The man was from Krosno Odrzanskie in the west of Poland and close to the border with Germany.

UK officers from Dyfed-Powys Police in Wales recently carried out vehicle checks on a Saturday evening shift. The focus for these checks were on enforcement of drink drive legislation and the officers stopped a number of other vehicles during the evening.

By midnight the officers had conducted more than 85 breath tests. There was only one positive test, provided by a male driver who blew a reading of 85 (the alcohol/breath limit in England and Wales is 35).

It was a 24-hour job to demolish the bridge called On Leiterchen that crossed over the A43 in the industrial Ruhr area of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia.

Traffic was stopped in both directions between junctions Recklinghausen-Hochlarmark and Recklinghause-Herten.

Before the serious work of nibbling away at the concrete structure could start, a 50cm layer of sand was spread across the entire motorway to protect the pavement from excavator machine tracks and falling concrete. The bridge eventually jack-knifed in on itself.

A demolition contractor in Canada has carried out a successful demolition of an old bridge in Montreal. The bridge crossed the 401 highway and was removed over a weekend. Work was carried out through the night for the structure to be removed within the allotted timeframe.