Jun 25, 2009 2:05 pm US/Eastern
Section Of Troubled I-395 Bridge Closed Again
Click Here To See Stephen Stock's I-Team: Help For Troubled Bridges
MIAMI (CBS4 I-TEAM) ―
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Florida Highway Patrol troopers investigate the dislodging of a metal expansion joint on I-395.
CBS4 News
A section of eastbound I-395 has been shut down again after temporary repairs to the bridge section did not hold.
Wednesday a part of an expansion joint near the Biscayne Boulevard and NE 2nd Avenue gave way
"It was a tractor trailer coming east bound," Florida Highway Patrol spokesman Lt. Pat Santangelo said. "On the eastbound lanes and as that tractor trailer passed over this bridge somehow the metal joint that connects the bridge to the solid ground so to speak popped up."
Several drivers were not able to stop in time before colliding with the metal joint.
"Fortunately (there were) no serious injuries," FHP's Pat Santangelo said. "Although one lady had her car demolished."
Workers toiled throughout the afternoon and Thursday morning to repair the damaged section and were able to open the lanes late in the morning. But by early afternoon the lanes were shutdown again, according to Santangelo because the repairs were not working. Traffic was only being allowed through in the emergency lanes.
Last year,
CBS4 I-Team investigator Stephen Stock found the bridge was been rated by engineers as structural deficient. One of 50 bridges throughout South Florida identified earlier this year by the
CBS4 I-Team as being in as poor condition as that bridge in Minneapolis that collapsed in 2007.
Click Here to see his report: I-Team: Help For Troubled Bridges.
When you get a close up look at the bridge you see how problematic it is.
Look at the expansion joint closely and you can see it's very unsafe to travel across. You can also see the bridge is in poor repair. In fact, statistics show this bridge was built in 1970. Structural engineers rated it a 36.8. Anything 50 or below is considered structurally deficient meaning the bridge is supposed to be repaired right way.
As the
I-Team first reported, there are 50 bridges throughout South Florida like this rated 50 or below by structural engineers meaning they are in need of repair. In fact, workers had been working on this bridge for months.
So far, state DOT officials haven't said whether that work contributed to this accident.
CBS4 I-Team investigator Stephen Stock contributed to this report
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