NORTH EAST — Most of the Route 20 bridge over Twenty Mile Creek in North East Township came down earlier than expected on Wednesday morning.
The bridge had been closed since February because of deterioration and other safety concerns. The bridge was being removed this fall and will be replaced next year.
An excavator was completing the demolition of one span of the bridge on Wednesday when two more spans and two of the bridge’s three concrete support piers unexpectedly came down. A span is the portion of the bridge between support piers.
The bridge’s third support pier and the span where the excavator was at work remained standing.
No one was hurt, said Pennsylvania Department of Transportation spokeswoman Jillian Harry.
“While we’re doing that kind of work, we make sure everyone is in a safe location,” Harry said.
A video initially posted on Facebook showed the excavator at work on the bridge when the spans and piers in front of it collapsed.
“I know a lot of people seeing the video might interpret it differently than we would at PennDOT,” Harry said. “We knew the bridge needed to come down; it’s why we closed it. And we were going to demolish the bridge in a very similar manner. What we see in the video is that everybody is safe.”
When will demolition be done?
Bridge demolition began Monday and was to proceed one span at a time, with debris being removed from the creek before the next span was brought down. Demolition was expected to be completed by the end of next week.
Now all of the fallen spans will be removed before the bridge’s single remaining span is demolished, Harry said.
The bridge was built in 1973.
The contractor for the $9.6 million demolition and replacement project is Mekis Construction of Butler County.
Contact Valerie Myers at vmyers@timesnews.com.
This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: North East bridge fell Wednesday before it could be demolished
