Video: CDI brings down Arizona’s Pinto Creek Bridge

Controlled Demolition Inc. (CDI), Phoenix, Maryland, performed the design for, and explosives felling of, two 350-feet steel girder arches that supported the Pinto Creek Bridge deck crossing Rattle Snake Canyon in Pinal County, Arizona, on Oct. 27.

The Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) opted to remove the bridge, which was first constructed in 1949, because “the Pinto Creek Bridge was built to standards in 1949; however, those standards no longer meet ADOT’s current minimum bridge guidelines or bridge guidelines required by the Federal Highway Administration and the American Association of State Highway Transportation Officials. As of 2018, the bridge had been in place for 69 years—notably longer than a typical bridge’s design life of 50 years. During the last several years ADOT [had] completed multiple maintenance projects on the bridge to extend its life. However, because of exposure to weather and continued traffic-induced vibration, the structure [had] reached the end of its useful life.”

A new bridge over the canyon adjacent to the old Pinto Creek Bridge was opened to the public in September.

ADOT noted that had it not replaced the bridge, the size and weight of allowable loads on it would need to be reduced, which would “negatively impact the area’s mining industry, interstate commerce and the traveling public.”

According to CDI, traffic on the adjacent bridge was reopened less than an hour following the felling of the structure.

ADOT anticipates the vast majority of the remaining work, including site restoration and cleanup, is on track for completion by the end of 2021.

Watch the video of the Pinto Creek Bridge implosion, courtesy of CDI: