Bridge damaged beyond repair by excavator impact.
When Canadian songstress Alanis Morissette released her 1996 hit Ironic (the most ironic thing being that the various examples of irony contained in the lyrics were just mildly irritating, not ironic), it proved once and for all what us Brits had long suspected: the North Americans just don’t do irony.
But following an incident in which two bridges were damaged – one beyond repair – by an excavator that was being hauled by a demolition contractor, we are willing to reconsider.
For ironically, the accident was caused by an equipment hauler operated by a bridge demolition company, though that company is not working on the project, officials said. The semi-truck, operated by Stomper Demolition of Euless, was hauling an excavator that was too tall and struck some of the bridges’ underside girders, said Selma Stockstill, with NorthGate Constructors, the company in charge of the DFW Connector project.
The boom on the excavator gouged one outside girder of the southbound bridge and two girders of the northbound bridge. The impact was so severe in one of the girders that “some of the rebar have snapped within the concrete,” she said.
The boom was 16 feet, 3 inches tall, while the driver had a permit allowing the boom to be no higher than 14 feet, 2 inches, according to the police report on the accident.
Tony Hartzel, with the Texas Department of Transportation, said the bridge had a clearance of 14 feet 7 inches.
It will be at least a week before drivers can cross over the highways on Texan Trail, officials said.
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