Experts weigh in on I-75 bridge collapse

James Pilcher and Jason Williams | The Cincinnati Enquirer

Show Caption Hide Caption Cincinnati bridge collapse kills construction worker Daylight reveals the extent of destruction after an Interstate 75 overpass collapsed during demolition in Cincinnati. One construction worker was killed and a truck driver was injured.

CINCINNATI — The collapse of the closed Hopple Street overpass onto Interstate 75 appeared to be a major construction accident and not a failure of the bridge itself, construction and engineering experts said Tuesday.

It killed a construction worker late Monday night and paralyzed traffic throughout the region, also crushing the front of a semi truck underneath; the driver sustained minor injuries. The incident occurred at 10:30 p.m., about a half an hour before demolition was set to commence on the span.

Experts said the demolition process could have triggered the accident.

There were fears it might keep one of the nation's most-traveled interstates closed until the weekend, but all lanes were reopened around 10 p.m. ET Tuesday, sparing commuters another day of misery.

The Hopple Street interchange project was part of a $2 billion overhaul of I-75, and contractors had earlier removed the eastern portion of the bridge that collapsed Monday.

"They should've been demolishing the middle first, and then they would've been OK," said Linwood Howell, a senior engineer for Austin, Texas-based XRStructural Engineering Services, which routinely inspects bridges for the state of Texas.

Contractor Kokosing Construction Co., Inc. was under a $91 million contract to rebuild the Hopple interchange as part of the remaking of that stretch of I-75. That included removing the old ramps. Documents obtained by The Enquirer on Tuesday indicate that the company faces penalties of $3,000 for every 15 minutes a lane of I-75 was closed during the project.

"I can see the contractor's point of view in trying to be efficient and saving time and money, thinking, 'I've got to close traffic down in order to work on the middle so let me just go ahead and take the sides out first,'" Howell said. But taking the sides off first is "the worst thing to be doing on a bridge like this."

By taking down a side portion of the bridge, it weakened the overall structure, Howell and other experts suggested after examining photos of the collapse. The extra weight of steel beams and equipment could have then prompted its collapse.

University of Cincinnati architecture professor Tom Bible said the pictures indicate a failure of the joints at the western joint of the span. That wouldn't have happened, he said, if the eastern end of the bridge over the median and connecting to the old Hopple Street connection hadn't been previously removed.

"Judging from the pictures, it obviously slipped off its supports," he said.

Westerville, Ohio-based Kokosing declined to comment on possible explanations for the collapse.

The overpass, which had been shut down weeks ago, had its eastern portion previously removed as part of the reconstruction of I-75 from the Ohio River through Hamilton County to I-275. The new Hopple Street bridge opened for all traffic late last month.

An estimated 200,000 vehicles pass through that section of the highway daily, according to Cincinnati police. But I-75 also is a major commercial route nationally; an estimated $400 billion annually in goods crosses the Brent Spence Bridge – which carries I-75 over the Ohio River – a number equivalent to nearly 4 percent of the nation's gross domestic product.

"What appears to have happened is, in essence, an industrial incident – a workplace incident with respect to a construction crew that's doing work out here," Cincinnati City Manager Harry Black said. "Something went wrong, and a tragedy has occurred as a result."

ODOT, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and Kokosing all began separate investigations into the incident Tuesday morning.

The incident occurred as Brandon Carl was driving an excavator on top of the old span and moving old steel beams to the east side so the demolition could start. When the bridge collapsed, the beams crushed Carl inside the cab.

The collapse nearly crushed the tractor trailer about to pass under the bridge. The driver, identified as Eric Meyers of Howell, Mich., was hospitalized with minor injuries.

Kokosing officials confirmed that Carl was working for the company and not a subcontractor. The company also confirmed it was performing its own "forensic" investigation into the collapse to figure out why it happened. But Kokosing declined comment on what might have caused the collapse or whether any joints failed or had been loosened in advance of any demolition.

Kokosing is well-known throughout Ohio and according to its website, the company is the Ohio DOT's largest highway contractor (it does similar work in West Virginia). Kokosing has more than 35 years of experience in heavy highway construction.

Kokosing has been involved in many local high-profile projects, including several in the area. It built the $50 million Cross County Highway project now known as Ronald Reagan Highway. It regularly does large projects and other works for Ohio.

In 1992, it purchased the assets of McGraw Construction in Middletown to form a member company called McGraw/Kokosing Inc. to provide heavy industrial maintenance. That company was involved in the 1994 AK Steel incident in Middletown that resulted in the death of four workers.

Kokosing has been involved in much of the reconstruction of I-75 in Hamilton County to prepare for the new interstate bridge to cross the Ohio River into Kentucky.

The Enquirer requested Kokosing's worker safety records Tuesday from OSHA, but that data was not immediately available.

The bridge that collapsed was originally built in 1961, but got decent reviews in its most recent inspection in 2013. It's "sufficiency rating," or measure of safety, design and structural measures, was 74.7 – anything below a 50 is considered problematic. Ohio DOT released the report of the inspection done in November 2014 late Tuesday, and the overall rating on the span was a 7 on a scale of 1 to 9. That was before demolition work took place, however.

Contributing: Kimball Perry, Sharon Coolidge, Jessica Frank and Henry Molski of The Enquirer