Crew will explode dangling portions of bridge

The partially collapsed Mississippi River bridge at Cape Girardeau will take another hit Thursday.

A demolition contractor plans to blast apart a small span that has been dangling in the river since a Sept. 9 explosion sparked more damage than expected.

The blast dropped a 671-foot-long section of the steel structure into the river's navigation channel near the Missouri shore as planned. But the explosion also triggered a chain reaction, possibly caused by vibration, which partially collapsed the remaining two spans into the river.

Thursday's blast, scheduled for 7 a.m., is designed to bring down the 314-foot-long span. One end of that span stills rests on a concrete pier. The other end is in the water.

Explosive charges will cut the small span into four pieces and raze part of one pier. All of the debris will fall into the river, said Missouri Department of Transportation engineer Stan Johnson. Barge cranes then will haul off the debris.

Thursday's blast -- the fourth demolition aimed to bring down the 76-year-old bridge -- won't be as powerful as the last blast, Johnson said.

Downtown residents won't be asked to evacuate their homes Thursday, he said, since no buildings are within a 1,500-foot radius of this span as was the case last time.

As with previous demolitions, the nearby Bill Emerson Memorial Bridge will be closed to traffic for about 10 minutes -- five minutes before and five minutes after the blast. Air and barge traffic will be restricted during the blast.

Cape Girardeau police chief Steve Strong said police will be involved in traffic control at the new bridge as in past blasts. But officers won't have to be stationed along downtown streets to block off an evacuation zone as occurred earlier this month, he said.

As with the three previous blasts, Johnson said the public can best view this explosion from Cape Girardeau's Riverfront Park.

Both Johnson and Strong said the blast shouldn't be as dramatic as the previous explosion, which drew hundreds of spectators to the riverfront.

Johnson said that would suit him just fine.

"I don't like excitement," he said. "Dull and boring is nice."

Unlike the last blast, which resulted in debris blocking the navigation channel for more than 48 hours, Thursday's explosion and the resulting debris in the river shouldn't pose a problem for boat and barge traffic, Johnson said, since this span is not in the navigation channel.

Once this work is done, plans will be made to explode the remaining jackknifed 671-foot-long span in the river. Johnson said that could occur within the next couple of weeks.

Later this fall, further blasts will be needed to destroy the concrete piers in the river.

The entire bridge is expected to be completely demolished by year's end.

MoDOT is demolishing the 76-year-old bridge at a cost of $2.23 million. The blasts are being conducted by Dem Tech of Dubois, Wyo. The general contractor is Midwest Foundation Corp. of Tremont, Ill.

mbliss@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 123