COMMUNITY NEWS
| Muscatine County, Iowa COMMUNITY NEWS | |
Source: Muscatine Journal, Muscatine, Iowa Thursday, April 5, 1973, pages 1 & 2.
Submitted by Beverly Witmer, February 19, 2013
EXPLOSIVES DROP SPAN INTO RIVER
by Jim Luellen – Staff writer.Salvage operations are expected to be completed this evening on the removal of the sections of the 142-ton center span of the old Muscatine bridge which was blasted apart this morning. The explosion was set off abut 9:20 a.m. today by workers for Controlled Demolitions, Inc. (CDI) of Townson, Md., and was viewed by a big crowd. People stood in the bright sunshine along the riverfront area, sat in cars and found vantage points wherever they could in windows or on the tops of Muscatine’s taller downtown buildings. The charges on the 81-year old bridge spanning the Mississippi River here had been placed earlier in anticipation of a planned blast Tuesday. However, the explosion was postponed 24 hours due to cold and windy weather which prevented the placing of the final charges.
Mark Loizeaux, vice-president of CDI, and another worker for the firm went out on the rocky bank of the outer edge of the small boat harbor about 9:10 a.m. today to set off the blast. Three minutes before the blast there were three long whistle blasts, followed by one long blast with one minute until blastoff and three short blasts 10 seconds before the explosives were set off. Loizeaux used a movie camera to film the blast and also gave the signal to the man detonating the blast. The loud explosion immediately cut the span off each end of the piers and sliced it into six sections as it fell into the water. Large billowing clouds of white smoke hovered over the scene against the blue sky.
During the blast the traffic was temporarily halted on the new $6 million Muscatine bridge about a half-mile upstream from the old bridge. Officials said the traffic was halted not because of any danger to the bridge, but because of the fear some driver might have an accident while hearing or watching the explosion.
Crane moves in Workmen of the Dore Wrecking Co., general contractor for the demolition of the bridge, immediately moved in a barge-mounted crane to begin removing the sections. One of the 28-ton sections was taken out by the crane and was on the Illinois side in less than 30 minutes after the blast. John Carter of CDI, said the blast went off as expected and said his firm was “happy with the job,” adding that he believed the span had been cut into six sections, as planned. “We used some pretty powerful shaped charges,” said Carter, who said approximately 95 charges, not 32 as earlier announced, were used in the demolition. Mark Loizeaux, vice president of CDI, said the explosive used was RDX, similar to the type of explosive used in some anti-aircraft shells. The hard plastic, orange-colored explosives, are encased in angular extruded copper sections, which control the direction of blast used to cut the steel.
Loizeaux said he and his men will travel to Indianapolis, Ind., this weekend to demolish a 10 and a 15-story building with explosives Sunday. They will return to Muscatine Monday to prepare for the blasting of the other two spans.
Other blasts are slated next week. The next span will be blasted on Wednesday morning, he said. It is planned to blow the third span on either Thursday or Friday morning, but he noted that he thought it would be interesting visually to blast one of the spans at just after dusk.
The old high bridge is being demolished under a $193,000 contract awarded to the Dore Wrecking Co., of Kawkawlin, Mich., which is the general contractor for the job. The Controlled Demolitions Inc. Co., has been in charge of all blasting operations for the bridge removal.
The removal of the other spans will be less critical because they are located out of the main channel. Permission had to be obtained to close the main channel for 48 hours for today’s blast, although officials said they were certain they would not need that long to completely clear the channel of debris. Prior to the blasting operations all of the wood planking had been removed by the general contractor leaving only the steel framework of the structure to be demolished.
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