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The skeletal remains of the old Inner Belt Bridge will come crashing down in a controlled demolition early Saturday morning, making way for the eastbound span of the George V. Voinovich Bridge. Visible in this picture from June is the edge of the new westbound span of the replacement bridge, which will carry traffic in both directions until construction finishes on its partner in late 2016.

(Gus Chan/The Plain Dealer)

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Cleveland's old Inner Belt Bridge, growing more gap-toothed by the week, will collapse altogether at first light on Saturday morning.

The Ohio Department of Transportation says a controlled demolition of the remaining skeleton of steel girders will take place about 6 a.m. Detonation charges are being placed at precise spots in order to implode the framework onto itself.

There will be a small public viewing area near the corner of East 14th Street and Broadway Avenue, accessible beginning at 5:30 a.m. Saturday. Paid public parking is available in downtown lots – a short walk from the viewing area.

The blow-up also will be carried on cleveland.com. Log on to the site for a live look.

A blast zone of 1,000-plus feet in a perimeter around the bridge will be off limits to spectators. Many local roadways will be closed, including Interstate 90 in downtown Cleveland, the Lorain-Carnegie Bridge and Abbey Avenue.

ODOT is replacing the 55-year-old bridge with twin bridges named in honor of George V. Voinovich. A westbound span opened last fall and handles traffic in both directions for now.

The old Inner Belt Bridge stands in the way of the new eastbound span already under construction -- pile driving is taking place along Kenilworth Avenue. Once that is complete, pile driving will start at Starkweather Avenue.

The pile driving in the Tremont area is for overpasses that carry Interstate 90 over Tremont side streets. The steel piles are an average of 38 feet deep -- shallow compared with the piles that will anchor footers poured for the bridge's massive, concrete supports, called piers. Crews on the westbound span hammered steel 160 to 200 feet into the ground before reaching bedrock.

Operations will continue through about July 17. Traffic is being maintained during the work. The eastbound bridge is scheduled to open in late 2016.

Beginning today and continuing through early August, drivers should also be on the alert for resurfacing work on East 22nd Street between Orange and Carnegie avenues, as well as on Woodland between East 22nd and East 30th streets. Crews will work from about 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. Monday through Friday. ODOT says at least one lane of traffic in each direction will be maintained at all times.

Work also continues on the reconfiguration of Orange Avenue and East 30th Street. Expect lane closures during off-peak hours.

The run-up to Saturday's demolition involved months of mechanical deconstruction work on the bridge that carried I-90 traffic through downtown Cleveland for half a century. Explosive charges couldn't be used to take down the end spans of the bridge, or spans over the Norfolk Southern railroad tracks and the Cuyahoga River.

But for the rest of the structure, controlled demolition is the safest and cheapest method, and accomplished in a split second.

The forecast for Saturday calls for partly sunny skies. ODOT has said the explosion can proceed even if it's raining and windy. About the only weather conditions that would force a delay would be lightning – because of the risk of a stray electrical charge detonating the explosives – and fog, because it could lower the ceiling for sound waves to escape, which could increase stress on surrounding structures.

The new spans are at least the third major crossing of the Cuyahoga River near downtown Cleveland: The old Inner Belt rose on the site of the Central Viaduct, a high-level bridge that opened in 1888 and linked the east and west sides of Cleveland, according to the Encyclopedia of Cleveland History. It was closed as unsafe in 1941 and razed for scrap iron during World War II.

Much of the 1959 bridge also is being reused. By May, ODOT had sold over 6,000 tons of torn-down girders to a steel recycler. After Saturday, there will be a lot more to dispose of.