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PITTSBURGH, Pennsylvania (KDKA) — Following the implosion of the Commercial Street Bridge earlier this week, PennDOT said that it will begin sliding in the brand new bridge on Sunday morning.
Beginning at 10 a.m. on Sunday, the lateral slide of the bridge between the Squirrel Hill Tunnel and the Edgewood-Swissvale exit will be put into place. The pre-built, fully constructed bridge will move 102 feet into place.
PennDOT said that each of the 42 skids that will move the bridge into place operates independently, and hydraulic jacks will be used to lift the bridge from the temporary supports and then set it down on the permanent bearings.
A livestream of the slide can be viewed here.
Explosive demolition takes down Commercial Street Bridge
On Wednesday morning, just before 8 a.m., an explosive demolition brought down the old bridge. The implosion sent a large plume of dust into the air.
PennDOT District 11 Executive Jason Zang said the demolition went “extremely well.”
“It went according to plan,” Zang said. “No damage to the new bridge.”
At the time of the demolition, the new bridge had been wrapped in a protective layer to prevent any damage.
Pittsburghers in awe of engineering feat
Pittsburghers looked on as the new bridge slid nearly 100 feet toward its permanent position on Sunday, with many of them finding something exciting that moved at a snail’s pace.
Work was paused Sunday around 5 p.m., with just a few feet to go as part of a pre-planned pause, a PennDOT spokesperson said.
“You don’t even notice it. You have to look away and look back,” said a father who’d brought both his sons to watch.
Over time, onlookers picked up on pieces of the new bridge disappearing from view, showing the bridge was indeed moving.
“There were two of those red gizmos, and now you only see one,” Gail Wedner said to her husband. “It’s very slow, but it’s exciting.”
“‘Impressive'” would be a better word to describe it,” said Kenneth Ide.
Wedner thought about that, too, and went back on her description of the slide as “exciting.”
“You can’t say it’s exciting to watch because it’s not like an action movie,” Wedner said. “It’s a marvel to watch.”
“I think it’s like an engineering feat. I mean, I’m proud to be a Pittsburgher, with this being one of the only times in the world or the country that this kind of bridge has been moved,” Valen said. “Years ago, we would have been out of the bridge for two or three years while the bridge was demolished and they built another one.”
“The fact that they could do this in such a short period of time and move that over, it’s just a remarkable achievement. That’s what’s exciting,” Wedner said.
The slide of the new bridge will be picked back up on Monday, the PennDOT spokesperson added.
Moving the new bridge into place will take time
As the slide begins on Sunday morning, it won’t be a quick process.
The new bridge contains about 22 million pounds of steel, concrete, and metal. While it only has to be moved a little over 100 feet, the maximum speed of the skids is about 6 meters, roughly 20 feet, per hour.
“At the end of the day, we want to make sure that we’ve completed the job safely and efficiently and have not caused undue stress to the structure,” said Mammoet Public Relations Director David Shaw. “We do this kind of thing on a weekly basis. The only thing that changes is the shape of the load.”
PennDOT said on Sunday morning that the public will be alerted when the new bridge is fully in place.
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