VIDEO: Pittsburgh says goodbye to 108-year-old Hulton Bridge

January 27, 2016
It took 500 explosive charges to bring down a 108-year-old truss bridge in the US city of Pittsburgh and crews had three days to clear up the debris, according to local news stations.

The blasts dropped the spans of 407m-long Jonathon Hulton Bridge directly into the Allegheny River. It was the first major bridge designed by Allegheny County in the state of Pennsylvania and connected the eastern Pittsburgh city suburbs of Oakmont and Harmarville.

A new steel girder bridge, directly beside it, opened to traffic in October. It has four 3.35m-wide vehicle lanes - two in each direction – and a 1.23m wide median. There are 1.8m shoulders on each side of the road and a sidewalk on the downstream side of the bridge.

Design of the new bridge was by 5412 Gannett Fleming and the contractor was Brayman Construction. Construction management and inspection was by SAI Consulting Engineers and CDR Maguire.

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