PROJECT #3 South Street Bridge demolition

Cost: $210,000

Deadline: 3 days

Company: KCC Engineering/demo

After noticing some severe crackage to the Mountain

Side City south street bridge it was decided by

authorities that it would be best to have the bridge

demolished for safety reasons. The bid was awarded to

KCC Engineering & Demo.(above you can see KCC estimater

 John standing on the bridge with City official Mark Stone)

Only weeks after recieving the project KCC crews rolled

in at sunrise and closed off the bridge.

Tunnel road beneath the bridge was closed off and the

3 day timeline for KCC to complete the project began. 

Within minutes after closing the road the equipment was

rolled in.(above CAT 325B L equipped w/ concrete pulverizor)

A CATERPILLAR backhoe with hydraulic hammer attachment

was dropped off

The biggest piece of equipment brought to the site was

a massive CAT 245 excavator equipped with a huge

 hydraulic hammer

Here's a photo showing how KCC had to actually stop

traffic with a flagsmen when the massive CAT 245

excavator arrived due to the size of the trailer

that was need to deliver the machine

By 10:30 on Day one, only hours after closing the road,

KCC had all their equipment on site and sand was

rolling in to protect the roadway beneath the bridge

The sand was poured and spread with a backhoe

The sand was leveled out directly underneath the bridge

to form a cushion and protective barrier for the roadway

The protective coat after two truck loads of sand and

being leveled out 

The CAT 245 was crawled up the hillside into place

As the CAT 245 excavator moved into position the 325B L

was fired up and the crews prepared to start demolition

The big CAT began pounding the bridge center and the

smaller CAT ripped off the steel fencing and bridge siding

Only a minute or two after the 245 excavator started

its hammering the bridges center cracked and

began sagging a few feet

Seconds later the smaller excavator and the big 245

put all their strenth down on the bridge center

and it almost instantly began falling to the ground

BOOM! Less than five minutes after the first hammer

hits from the 245 excavator the bridge was down. This

picture shows you just how fast the bridge came down

it actually lifted the 325B L excavator off the

ground because its teeth had such a strong bite

Now that the bridge was on the ground the crews

began tearing and breaking it up

Hammering, crushing, shearing, sorting

CAT 325B L putting its concrete pulverizor to work

The crews getting right back to work after a short lunch

The 245 uses its hammer to push away the last bits

of this sides hillside foundation

After the 245 excavator completed its job on the

Western side of the bridge it crawled back down

the hillside to finish up the breaking that

 needed to be done on the Eastern side

It was awesome seeing an excavator of this size

use its boom and crawler tracks to pull itself up

a hill with a slope of nearly 45 degrees

Once up the excavator went back at it and began breaking

 up the Eastern side of the bridge that still remained

Here's a shot of the 245 pushing out the bridges

hillside foundation

Another shot of the eastern foundation being pushed

from the hillside rebar and all

By the end of day one the bridge was completly down

and almost all the way broken to pieces

Day 2

As the concrete crushing and breaking continued on

onto day 2 a second CAT 325B L equipped with a hydraulic

thumb was delivered to began removal of the all the debre

S.A. FROMONT hauling was called in to haul away all

the material

Here's a shot of the 325B L w/ thumb at work

loading up one of the haul trucks

Second shot of the 325B L with a big piece of concrete

By the end of day 2 almost all was complete. The bridge

was completly demolished and almost all the debre

had been hauled off site

Only a day earlier a bridge crossed the roadway there

On day 3 the equipment starting with the 325B L with

pulverizor was hauled off the site

Next went the 325B L with thumb...

Then the big old 245

245 leaving the job

The backhoe and a few workers with brooms cleaned up

the final bridge remains and scooped up the sand layer

The backhoe dumping some of the sand that was used

into a waiting truck

At 3:45 on the third day the last piece of equipment

was hauled from the site

The barriers where removed late afternoon day 3 and

 the job was completed just as promised

Now only 3 days after closing off the road there is

only the memory of where the old South Street

bridge used to cross