Millsboro/Ten Mile Bridge Demolition

　

Today, on September 12, 2011, the Millsboro bridge, located at the bottom of Greene County hill on PA-88 was demolished by implosion at 5:07 pm. The bridge, built in 1932, was one of the last remaining bridges left in Pennsylvania with a double X heavy lattice style of portal bracing.

The 313'-long, skewed, 2 simple span, riveted Pratt thru truss bridge is supported on reinforced concrete abutments with flared wingwalls and a concrete pier. The upper chords are built-up members. The bottom chords, vertical members, stringers, and floorbeams are rolled section. A lattice railing is inside the downstream truss, and the sidewalk cantilevered off the upstream truss also has a lattice railing. The bridge has no innovative or distinctive details, including the use of rolled sections for most truss members which was introduced in the mid 1920s, and it is an example of common period technology. Neither the bridge nor its setting are historically or technologically significant.

 (Information from Pennsylvania's Historic Bridge Inventory, courtesy of HistoricBridges.org. All bridge info courtesy of HistoricBridges.org, also.)

Video footage from bridge implosion.

On the morning of September 12, I headed out with my dad to watch the bridge implosion, only to arrive and find out after an hour and a half that the demolition time had been moved from 10 am, to 4pm, so home we went. We arrived back at the site at 3pm to make sure that we didn't miss anything important.

The first set of pictures is from our great hilltop view (from the ridge alongside Greene County hill) of the bridge and the preparations leading up to the demolition. This was our intended filming spot, but the construction company and the State Police didn't agree, as they kicked us and the owners of the property out and told us it was 'too close.' Anything under 1000 feet, or 'close enough to see it' was considered too close. So, off we went to find a new spot.

If you look inside the bridge, you can see the construction worker inside the bridge, checking on everything.

 

Construction worker(in yellow cage) checking the explosives.

Checking the bridge and surrounding area.

Clearing people from their yards.

And the construction team and the state police telling us to get outta here.

One of the many 'eyes in the sky'

We headed down to Ten Mile Park, to see if we could find a good viewpoint down by the river. And we did, joined by others who had been kicked out of their spots. We waited over another hour, when at 5:07pm, the bridge was imploded.

The view from our new spot, in Ten Mile Park.

Minutes before implosion.

Boom!

And the beginning of the clean up...

Almost two months later