WCAX.COM Local Vermont News, Weather and Sports-UVM Engineer Weighs Options for Champlain Bridge Demolition

UVM Engineer Weighs Options for Champlain Bridge Demolition

Burlington, Vermont - November 10, 2009

     In December 1982, Vermonters got a lesson in how not to demolish a bridge. The arch bridge over the Connecticut River near Bellows Falls stubbornly stood through five blasts with explosives. None of them worked. The bridge was ultimately taken down with a cutting torch.
     Engineers are now trying to figure out how to demolish the Champlain Bridge effectively and efficiently.
     "We want to be sure we do it safely and environmentally safely too," said Stanley Gee, acting commissioner of New York's Dept. of Transportation, at a press conference Monday. "You don't just blow it up."
     "It's a matter of cost versus environmental impact," said Dryver Huston, a civil and mechanical engineer at UVM. Bridge inspection is one of his fields of research. He wasn't surprised officials decided to demolish the bridge, but says they have a lot of factors to consider.
     "The question is the practicality," he said. "If you want to dismantle it piece by piece and put it onto a barge, that's a lot of labor and it's also very dangerous to the workers. Demolition actually is reasonably safe. You just clear everyone out and if the demolition goes properly, you'll fish it out. So demolition is largely cheaper and safer but it would put stuff into the lake."
     That stuff in the lake is the potential problem of using explosives.
     "This is a bridge with a lot of steel, maybe lead-based paint, a lot of debris going into the water," Huston said. But he added that not using explosives is not a great option either.
     "You would have to demolish it like a Tinker Toy," he said. "There's a lot of pieces to that bridge, so I suspect it would be cost prohibitive."
     Cost is one factor. So is time. The community is eager to have a new bridge. But Huston says the process of demolishing, designing and building a bridge is usually three to five years.

Kate Duffy - WCAX News