As demolition of the Daniel Carter Beard Bridge, or Big Mac Bridge, continues, the Ohio Department of Transportation announced it estimates the repair job will likely cost at least $10 million to finish.
The bridge was severely damaged on November 1 after a playground at Sawyer Point Park, beneath the bridge, caught fire overnight and burned for hours in a blaze that was large and hot enough to warp some of the steel beams supporting the bridge.
As of Thursday, ODOT said crews have completed most of the removal of the bridge’s concrete deck, less than one week after demolition efforts began.
Next week, ODOT crews will begin demolition on the steel girders, which officials said will also require the same slow, “surgical” approach crews have undertaken with the concrete deck. Demolition on the bridge is expected to continue through the middle of December, ODOT said.
While they work, four shoring towers created to stabilize damaged parts of the bridge will be relocated.
Repairs to the damage on the bridge’s northern lanes including a damaged section of concrete wall on NB I-471 is expected to begin as early as next week, with completion scheduled by the end of the year, ODOT said.
Once that damage is repaired, the single lane that’s been closed on the northbound side of the bridge will be able to re-open.
In all, however, ODOT said the cost of fixing the entire bridge and getting it back into working condition will come with a price tag of “at least $10 million,” according to ODOT’s latest update.
ODOT will pay for the emergency repair project up front, but will pursue reimbursement from the Federal Emergency Relief Program a move that’s possible because Governor Mike DeWine declared a state of emergency in Hamilton County in the days after the fire.
At the end of November, ODOT estimated it would take until March for all lanes on southbound I-471 across the bridge to fully open. That timeline is contingent on ODOT’s current plan for custom-made steel girders order from a fabrication company that’s currently expected to arrive in mid-January.
Demolition on the bridge began on November 29 and ODOT spokesperson Kathleen Fuller previously said the process is expected to take roughly three weeks.
“It’s going to be like a surgical, very systematic approach,” said Fuller.
There have also been concerns about the stability of the bridge, which prompted crews to pour concrete for multiple shoring towers to help support the structure.
Until those towers were built, Fuller said crews couldn’t get onto or under the bridge for inspections, because the concrete deck is not supported in places where multiple steel beams have warped away from it.
“I don’t want to induce panic, I don’t want to worry anyone … yes, there was always the potential for a collapse,” said Fuller.
Fuller said since the shoring towers were poured, she doesn’t believe there’s a risk of collapse, but crews have not been certain exactly how the structure will respond once demolition efforts begin.
“They realize there are some unknowns,” said Fuller.
Fuller said there are three things that could possibly delay the timeline of the bridge repairs: Delivery of the steel girders, equipment and weather. Crews will be working through the winter months, but Fuller said that also means they’re at the mercy of weather conditions.
As of Thursday, December 5, the Cincinnati Fire Department still has not released any details from its investigation into the fire or how it started. WCPO has continued to request information from the fire department and city officials about the status of that investigation.