Thursday, March 26, 2015

SALADO, TEXAS DEADLY BRIDGE COLLAPSE: UNCLEAR IF TXDOT SIGNS INDICATED BRIDGE HEIGHT WHEN AN OVERSIZED TRUCK HIT THE OVERPASS, CAUSING BEAMS TO FALL ON VEHICLES TRAVELING ON INTERSTATE 35







MARCH 26, 2015

SALADO, TEXAS
 
2:30 p.m. update: Officials with the Texas Department of Transportation now say it is not clear what signage might have been posted in the approach to the new bridge that was hit on Thursday morning.

Spokeswoman Veronica Beyer said that the agency is continuing to review the site and will release information about what signs were visible as it becomes available.

2:15 p.m. update: The truck that hit an overpass in Salado on Thursday morning, causing beams to fall on vehicles traveling on Interstate 35, was too tall to clear the bridge.


 “The truck driver ignored signs that we had that would have indicated that the truck was too tall,” said Veronica Beyer, a spokeswoman for TxDOT.

2 p.m. update: Traffic around where bridge beams fell onto Interstate 35 in Salado is backed up to Jarrell heading north and Temple heading south, according to Lt. Donnie Adams with the Bell County sheriff’s office.

Officials are unclear when Interstate 35 will reopen following the incident, which left at least one dead and three injured, but Adams said authorities hope it will be open to traffic again by sunset.


Overhead view of FM 2484 overpass.

A semi-truck traveling north on Interstate 35 when it reportedly hit the bridge, which is under construction, causing several beams to fall onto vehicles below.
Adams said it’s unclear if the truck was too tall to clear the bridge or if the driver veered into something dislodging the beams.

1:30 p.m. update: Three people are being treated for injuries not considered life-threatening at Scott & White Memorial Hospital in Temple, according to hospital spokesman Deke Jones.


Salado bridge collapse: 1 dead, others injured, DPS says

One person has been confirmed dead by the Texas Department of Transportation and more deaths are possible.

A semi-truck traveling north on Interstate 35 in Salado hit an overpass under construction at FM 2484, causing concrete beams to collapse and fall on vehicles below.

Lt. Donnie Adams with the Bell County sheriff’s office said that two other semi-trucks and two pickup trucks were also involved.

Salado police officers are helping divert traffic to the interstate’s frontage roads, said Kim Foutz, the city’s administrator.

“I’m actually right here on the highway,” she said. “We saw a trickle of traffic being let through southbound but it has been terminated.” Most of it that remains on the southbound and northbound frontage road are at a standstill, Foutz said.

The bridge at FM 2484 is part of a $72.6 million, 3.3-mile construction project by the Texas Department of Transportation that runs south to FM 2843 in Salado. The primary purpose of the construction is to widen Interstate 35 from four lanes to six.

TxDOT is also replacing most of the bridges at crossroads and making the frontage roads one-way rather than allowing traffic to travel in both directions.
The project started in January 2012, according to TxDOT’s website. The contractor, James Construction Group LLC, was given 920 days to complete the work and has used about 88 percent of that time. The construction work, however, is only 53.4 percent complete, according to the website, and James has only been paid $36.3 million as of March 4, about half of the total contract amount.

As of about 1:20 p.m. TxDOT estimated that it would take up to four hours to clear Interstate 35 of debris from the collapse.

12:20 p.m. update: One person is dead and others are injured after part of an overpass at FM 2484 fell on Interstate 35, according to the Texas Department of Transportation.

Trooper Harpin Myers said he didn’t know the extent of the injuries but that early reports indicate that two semi-trucks and two pickup trucks were involved in a crash connected to the incident.

The Texas Department of Transportation has said that one semi-truck hit a beam on the overpass, which is under construction.

Corbin Casteel, an Austin consultant, was driving to Dallas for work when traffic started to slow about four miles from FM 2484.

He arrived at the scene of the incident about 30 minutes after part of the overpass fell, he said, and saw a concrete beam lying across a semi-truck.
“It’s a mess over there,” he said, describing a flurry of first responders, law enforcement officers and construction activity.

Noon update: A semi-truck was driving on Interstate 35 when it struck a beam on an overpass under construction at FM 2484, according to Jodi Wheatley, a spokeswoman for the Waco district of the Texas Department of Transportation.
The beam then fell on to vehicles on Interstate 35 in Salado, about 50 miles north of Austin, she said.

It’s unclear if anyone was injured, or if anyone was on the overpass when it was struck around 11:30 a.m., but Wheatley said the situation is serious.

Wheatley said the overpass construction is part of a project to widen all bridges in the area by demolishing and rebuilding each one in portions.

TxDOT was in the proces of building the second half of the FM 2484 overpass when the truck struck it, she said.

A photo of the collapse posted on Twitter by KWTX shows large concrete beams cutting across the Interstate and obscuring a truck with a logo for C.R. England Global Transportation.

A bridge has collapsed in Salado, over I-35. All lanes are closed. http://t.co/41TXmkYlztpic.twitter.com/qV25kV1LxN
— KWTX News 10 (@kwtx) March 26, 2015

Earlier: A bridge has reportedly collapsed on Interstate 35 in Salado, according to the Bell County sheriff’s office.

Traffic has stopped in both directions and state troopers and sheriff’s deputies are responding to the scene.

No further information was immediately available
Source: http://www.statesman.com