Second Truss Failure Delays Work on Ohio Bridge Again
Workers with Fru-Con Construction Corp., Ballwin, Mo., had resumed construction Oct. 23 on the bridges main span after an eight-month delay following the Feb. 16 collapse of a 2-million-lb, $3-million custom-made launching truss that killed four workers (ENR 3/1 p. 12). After months of inspecting and modifying the second launching truss, identical to the first, engineers had determined that they could resume main span construction with it.
But just hours after resuming construction, workers apparently raised one support lega 10-ft-long, 2.5-ton steel cylinder winch driven by a 4-hp electric motorrather than lowering it. This caused the 10-ft-long leg to pull up and the support cable to break, says Fru-Con project manager Dave Herron. The leg fell about 10 ft to the catwalk around the top of the pier.