Investigation underway after worker is killed during bridge demolition.
Investigators from two state agencies were trying to determine Monday, May 19, why part of a railroad bridge being disassembled over Highway 91 in Riverside fell early Sunday, catapulting a construction worker to his death.
There is urgency — Caltrans and its contractors plan a similar demolition this summer on Interstate 215 in Grand Terrace.
“This is under total and complete investigation,” Caltrans spokeswoman Terri Kasinga said Monday.
About 3:15 a.m. Sunday, workers were cutting in half the portion of a temporary railroad bridge — called a shoofly — that was above the eastbound lanes of Highway 91. The shoofly had been erected about a year and a half ago between the 14th Street and Central Avenue exits while crews modified the original bridge on the Pachappa Railroad Overcrossing to accommodate the widening of the freeway as part of a $232 million project to add carpool lanes.
A crane supported the half nearest the embankment while Okesene Faasalele, 59, who worked for Hard Rock Equipment Rentals in Corona, stood on the other half, tethered to it by a safety harness. Suddenly, the half that Faasalele was standing on fell, taking him with it. That half had been attached in some manner to the support pillar at the center of the freeway, Kasinga said.
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