Centre span falls to explosives in advance of second blast on Friday.
The bridge, which connected N.D. Highway 66 with Minnesota Highway 11 over the Red River east of Drayton, N.D., was imploded shortly after 8 a.m.
The old bridge, which often was threatened by flooding, was replaced last fall with a 4,090-foot-long bridge that is considered the second longest in North Dakota. The Four Bears Bridge over Lake Sakakawea near Fort Berthold, N.D., is about 400 feet longer.
“There were no problems. It went off without a hitch,” said Richard Sampson, project engineer with the North Dakota Department of Transportation.
Spectators were kept more than a quarter-mile away, as a demolition crew blew up the center portion of the steel-truss cantilever bridge, each end falling to the ice and shoreline.
Most of the charges were placed in the center portion of the bridge, to keep the ends of the bridge from breaking through the ice, according to Joel Myers, project engineer with Lunda Construction, the Wisconsin company that built the new bridge.
The two piers will be imploded Friday. The remaining steel girders will be dismantled and hauled away to be recycled.
To read more and to view a video of the implosion, please click here.
