About five years ago there was a horrific accident on one of the Interstates near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, when a girder that was being placed for a bridge spanning the roadway fell from the crane into traffic, with a fatality.
Ever since then PennDOT has insisted on full road closures whenever girders are being placed.
FDOT was on site according to local media. At the presser just now at least one question was asked about the decision to allow traffic to flow. None of the many authorities present would answer the question.
There’s a overpass currently being reworked at the junction of route 202 and the 30 bypass near Frazer, PA.
Not sure if they are replacing girders, but the crew has nets slung under the overpass to keep debris from falling onto traffic below. Every morning I’m in the traffic below, which passes under the overpass, on a curve, at 55.
Makes me nervous every time.
Somewhere in the country in the past few years, I drove under an overpass that was being demolished while traffic was still flowing UNDER the overpass bridge AND on the overpass bridge itself. There were probably 10 large excavators with the large hydraulic demolition points on the end of the boom chipping away at the bridge. It was astounding to see live traffic under and on top of a bridge undergoing demolition. I had visions of the whole thing suddenly letting go and killing many. I thought to myself, “MY GOD, what are these people doing?”