PrintJan. 15--PROVIDENCE -- The demolition contractor removing the old highway bridge over Wickenden Street is putting on a nightly show of mechanized power, smashing and ripping the bridge apart.
The wrecking ball is out. The demolition contractor, Testa Corp., is using a fearsome device called a hydraulic radial shear to dismember the bridge. Mounted on an excavator in place of its bucket, it has hardened steel jaws that can cut through both steel and steel-reinforced concrete.
Monday night, the demolition crew used it to smash the bridge's reinforced concrete deck to rubble and then punch the rubble down between the bridge's girders to the closed street below.
Working on the top, the crew began ripping out the bridge's main supporting girders.
Grabbing one end of each girder, the crew wrenched that end from the concrete piers. Then it hauled the beam across the remaining beams, like a carpenter handling a two-by-four, so it wouldn't fall into the street.
The result was a noisy but spooky scene, with light from banks of construction floodlights shining through clouds of dust from the demolition, and shattered concrete with steel reinforcing bars sticking out crashing down to the street. Ripping each girder loose added loud screeching and scraping noises as the beam was hauled across the others.
The demolition project is part of the state Department of Transportation's relocation of Route 195. Traffic has shifted to the new section of the highway, leaving the old one unused except for storing construction materials. Pio Monsini, Testa's superintendent, said he expects it will take about two weeks to demolish the bridge and haul off the debris for recycling.
The bridge is being removed so Cardi Corp. can rebuild the intersection at the west end of the commercial district along Wickenden Street. The rest of the old highway embankment, which runs from the bridge west to near Route 95, will be demolished later, with the project scheduled for completion in 2012.
The bridge and the rest of that section of Route 195 have been replaced by the new, light-green Providence River arch bridge and the new interchange with Route 95.
The DOT says it's trying to keep two constituencies happy during the demolition: The residents in the area, who want quiet, and the merchants, who want open road access to their stores. To do that, the demolition is being done in the evening with the quieter cleanup later at night.
The Wickenden Street Bridge is small potatoes for the Massachusetts-based Testa, which is working as a subcontractor for Cardi. Testa is one of the largest demolition companies in the nation. One of its higher-profile projects in the region was tearing down Boston's elevated Central Artery as part of the Big Dig project. It also worked on the cleanup after the World Trade Center towers in New York City were destroyed in 2001.
One of the state's reasons for building a new section of Route 195 was the wretched condition of bridges. The Wickenden Street Bridge made it to the end of its career only with the support of steel and wood shoring, props and bracing.
blandis@projo.com
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