![]() long temporary, three-lane bridge from Acrow Corp., Carlstadt, NJ.Īcrow also played a major role in very similar disaster three years ago on Interstate 80 West in Dover, NJ, where the steel girder bridge over a brook buckled from intense heat from a fire that resulted when a tanker truck laden with gasoline erupted after a multi-truck accident. On the southbound side, engineers had at one time proposed filling in Howard Avenue below with dirt, then building the roadway on top of it. But, “It would not last 40 to 30 years that it normally would.” “Short-time use is fine,” Gruhn said of the repaired structure. “I stood under that bridge with four dump trucks on it. wide girders that keep the bridge standing. Art Gruhn, ConnDOT’s chief engineer, said the piers, essentially small scaffolds, will hold the 75-ft. Then, officials decided to reopen the northbound lanes Sunday afternoon.ĬonnDOT officials said tests performed over the weekend on samples of the northbound bridge revealed that it could be secured with reinforcing piers below the overpass. above Howard Avenue because of the intense heat of Thursday’s blaze. Working around the clock, engineers from ConnDOT and crews from the contractors demolished the old southbound bridge, which at one point dipped to 3 ft. (Their contract has been slated for completion next year, but that could now change.)įortunately, because of the ongoing construction, there were plenty of workers and equipment immediately available, mostly from the joint venture. The Howard Avenue overpass bridges had been reconstructed by DeMatteo and Brunalli. DeMatteo Construction Co., Braintree, MA, and Brunalli Construction Co., Southington, CT. The area where the accident occurred is in one of these projects, a $113-million ConnDOT contract with a joint venture of M. long stretch of I-95 in Bridgeport and Fairfield, CT, at a cost of more than $500 million, by at least five different contractors or joint ventures. Ironically, partly because of the high traffic volume, the Connecticut Department of Transportation (ConnDOT) is upgrading and rebuilding a 10-mi. ![]() By Monday afternoon, March 29, southbound traffic was moving smoothly through Bridgeport, funneled along the detour by numerous police officers and barricades.Īnd early Wednesday morning, March 31, the three southbound lanes reopened, although with reduced speed limits. However, the northbound lanes reopened for traffic Sunday afternoon, March 28. Fabrizi to call for a 90-minute delay in school openings. Congestion caused by highway detours on local streets was serious enough for Bridgeport Mayor John M. Motorists and Bridgeport residents suffered through miles of traffic jams on local streets. Naturally, the alternative routes like the Merritt were bumper-to-bumper throughout the weekend. That left the New York Thruway-Massachusetts Turnpike route as the most viable option for truck traffic bound for Boston and points north and east. The second alternate, Interstate 84 in west-central Connecticut, also has only two lanes in each direction between Danbury and Hartford and, because it is actually operating beyond capacity at times, is undergoing a major reconstruction in the Waterbury-Cheshire stretch. The parkway itself has only two lanes in each direction. The nearest alternate through route, the Merritt Parkway, which parallels I-95, prohibits commercial trucks because several bridges on the historic parkway are too low for some trucks. Interstate 95 is the main artery between New York and Boston, and shutting it down immediately diverted traffic onto Bridgeport’s city streets, jamming them past capacity. The impact, as could be expected, was horrendous. The fire was contained after nearly three hours. “Once it sagged, it made a pool of burning fuel oil,” said Wallace Thomas, Bridgeport’s deputy fire chief. The overpass, which was new, sagged several feet. The fire was so hot it buckled the steel support beams on both sides of the highway, authorities said. Witnesses said they heard explosions and saw a gigantic fireball shoot into the sky. ![]() According to observers, the fire erupted after oil spilled onto the pavement and passing cars created an aerosol mist that caught fire. Connecticut State Police said the car apparently rear-ended the tanker truck and forced it into a concrete barrier on the southbound side of the interstate. The fire resulted from a crash involving an automobile and a tanker truck loaded with 12,000 gal. The fire Thursday night, March 25, occurred on the Howard Avenue overpass of I-95 in Bridgeport, damaged the steel bridge supports on both northbound and southbound sides, forcing the closing of a mile-long section and bringing traffic, normally 120,000 vehicles a day, to a halt. ![]() Six days after an intense fire shut down all lanes of a heavily traveled section of Connecticut Interstate 95, the road reopened in both directions, beating original estimates by more than a week.
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