So they just blew it up (down?) 20 mins ago, I watched it on TV and recorded it, a nice light show, but did anyone put down their drink and go out there to get a home video?

It looks to me like they f'ed the demo up. They said how all the girders were going to the ground in one piece after being cut by the explosives. And all that would be standing is the concrete posts. But the girders are still attached to the posts, in a v-shape.

Ok, got some pictures.



See slideshow here: http://www.nbc4.com/news/9745984/detail.html

Detonation of nearly half-mile stretch of old Wilson Bridge in Alexandria, Va. last night. Bert V. Goulait (THE WASHINGTON TIMES)
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Yeah, that definantly is better than all mine.

looks like a klan rally

I never liked Women's World Banking to start with!

"It looks to me like they f'ed the demo up. They said how all the girders were going to the ground in one piece after being cut by the explosives. And all that would be standing is the concrete posts. But the girders are still attached to the posts, in a v-shape."

Just goes to show what a tough old girl she was! She carried many times her designed capacity for 45 years. She was never intended to be part of the main north-south route for the east coast (I-95), but that's what she became.

By rights, she should have been featured on one of those "engineering disaster" type shows on cable for collapsing into the river and drowning a few hundred motorists.

Wasn't her fault she only had 6 lanes. They'll be cursing the new 12 lane bridge in no time, there's just too gaddamn many people around here!

RIP WWB!

So is all the junk just left in the river? I don't think it's very deep there.

The part they blew up is over land, near Jones Point park (Va side).

The river is about 25-30 feet deep from the Va shore over to just past the draw span, then it gets pretty shallow from there to the Md shore.

I am interested to see what happens. Will they sue the company that screwed up the demo, or blast it again. Actually, what I really want to know is what will happen when they are ready to take down the part over the river. I hope they blow that up. I might get a boat to see that.

Usually demo companies know what they are doing. I wonder if these people were new to the job and therefore had the lowest bid. I mean, you don't see Dunes Hotels get half demolished and have the owners say o well.

I haven't read anywhere that the demo was flubbed. Did I miss something?
I went under the WWB the other day in a boat and it's amazing how close the old bridge is to the new one. So maybe they only used as much dynamite as they could without damaging the new bridge?

I don't think they'll dynamite the over water part, agin the closeness. Plus they can't leave all that junk in the water, it'd be a hazard to navigation.

I think they should have just taken a large chunk out of the old span and left the rest for fishin' They do that a lot of places.

Yeahm they did that in the FL Keys when they put in all the new bridges.

Refering to the closeness, it's not an issue. They can put the chrges so that they blow up inward toward the old span, so not much flying material to damage new span. I'm sure they planned for it when designing the new bridge. Actually, speaking of FL, I was there a month ago and they didn't remove very much of the old bridges. They would go about 200 feet out and cut out a section between piers, so sailboats could get through but people couldn't get over. Then left up the rest of the bridge.

What they did in Charelston to get rid of old truss bridges: dynamite one span of the bridge at a time, after removing the concrete deck, and then go pick it out of the river (also shallow) with a crane and excavator. Then blow up the next span. see here for some pics and video: http://oldcooperriverbridge.org/blast.php

What is WWB?

Basic interest Wrote:
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> What is WWB?

The Woodrow Wilson Bridge. 'Nuff said.

9ulve