Cleveland’s Innerbelt Bridge slated for demolition

The Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) has announced plans to demolish the now-closed 1959 Innerbelt Bridge, which brings traffic into Downtown Cleveland.

Trumbull Corp., in a joint venture with Great Lakes Construction Co. and The Ruhlin Co., known as Trumbull-Great Lakes-Ruhlin (TGR) was the successful bidder on the $273 million Cleveland Innerbelt Bridge project, which has been designed by URS. TGR was awarded the contract to demolish the 1959 bridge and construct a sister span to the already completed first bridge. The team has proposed a mixture of both traditional demolition and controlled – or explosive – demolition.

The bridge railings, lights, barriers and concrete driving surface will be removed using traditional methods. Specific spans over the river and railroads will also be disassembled in a traditional manner. Several spans will be demolished using a controlled demolition method. A professional demolition company – who has handled large-scale demolitions around the nation – will perform the controlled demolition and a safety perimeter of 1,000 feet will be set. Additional details will be available this spring.

In advance of the demolition project crews have begun demolition operations, which include removing light poles, barrier wall and railings. Soon after, the concrete driving surface will be removed. This preliminary work is expected to continue into this spring. Controlled demolition is scheduled to take place during the late spring or early summer of 2014 with the demolition project completed by this summer.

ODOT is in the midst of replacing the 1950’s-era Innerbelt Bridge with two, new bridges – one to carry westbound traffic, the other to carry eastbound traffic.

More information on the bridge project is available at www.Innerbelt.org.