Bald Eagle Pair Unfazed By Hulton Bridge Implosion
OAKMONT (KDKA) -- There is something about a race against time. Heavy equipment and cutting torches sprayed showers of sparks, captivating onlookers as work continued to dismantle to old Hulton Bridge.
"Watching this come down, it's pretty incredible," said John Hohman, of Oakmont. "It's great to watch."
The Brayman crews were moving quickly and efficiently Wednesday, cutting and lifting portions of the bridge's center section over to the Harmar shore to be further sliced and diced for haul-away to recycling.
The crews are facing a Friday morning deadline to have the river channel open. It's 500 feet between the center piers.
"We only need 300 feet for navigation purposes," said Tim Taylor, the manager of Brayman Construction.
It turns out, at the time of Tuesday's implosion blast, it wasn't just people the contractor was worried about.
Perched in a huge sycamore above the bridge is the nest of two bald eagles.
The Audubon Society was hired by Brayman and PennDOT to keep a close eye on the protected national symbols, and so with specialized equipment, they watched.
"One of the eagles actually visited the nest about an hour before the implosion," said Brian Shema, of the Audubon Society of Western Pennsylvania. "Then, fortunately for us, they both actually both flew down river about 45 minutes before the implosion."
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Turns out, the eagles were in Fox Chapel when the valley got rocked.
"We would have delayed the implosion of the bridge if the birds were within the harmful blast radius of the bridge," said Shema.
"There's always that potential, but we didn't have that issue yesterday to be concerned about," said Taylor.
While the loud implosion might have scared some humans who were watching," Shema says, "the eagle that I was watching actually neve even moved on its perch."
And, an hour after the blast, it was back circling the bridge as if eyeing up the results.
Since the blast, Shema says, "The birds are carrying on their normal activities."
