AASHTO Journal, 6 June 2014
Officials at the Delaware Department of Transportation are working this week to get a heavily traveled bridge on busy I-495 back up and running after an emergency closure this week.
On Monday, DelDOT officials found during an inspection that four support piers had shifted on Bridge I-813 over the Christina River on I-495. Engineers found a shifting concrete barrier on the road surface, so the bridge was shut down for investigation. Engineers found that four of the bridge’s 37 support columns had tilted as much as 4 percent out of vertical alignment.
DelDOT officials are currently completing the inspection of all bridge piers, reviewing design options for a new foundation for the damaged section, and working with the City of Wilmington to deal with the traffic issues that have arisen due to the bridge closure. The bridge, built in 1974, carries about 90,000 vehicles along I-495 each day.
DelDOT Secretary Shailen Bhatt said that while he understands the traffic headaches the bridge closure could cause, the safety of the public is the greatest concern and priority.
“DelDOT understands that there’s an urgent desire to open I-495, but public safety must remain our number one priority as we systematically go through the steps and series of options needed to reopen the bridge,” Bhatt said in a statement. “We know at this point that we are not looking at an event measured in days or in years. This will be an event lasting weeks and perhaps months.”
