Allegheny River Reopens Near Hulton Bridge Implosion Site

OAKMONT (KDKA)- It only took a few seconds for the 107-year-old Hulton Bridge to fall into the Allegheny River. However, getting the sections of the bridge out of the river is a much longer process.

Piece by piece, crews are taking the bridge apart and removing it from the river. The distance between the center spans of the old bridge is 500 feet.

Brayman Construction, the contractor of the implosion, had to clear 300 feet before Friday's 10 a.m. deadline.

As of noon, the waterway remain closed as crews were working to determine if an object in the river detected by the sonar scan was part of the bridge.

Around 12:30 p.m. that object was determined to not be part of the bridge and the waterway was reopened.

Early Friday morning, crews pulled another part of the bridge from the water.

Workers with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the U.S. Coast Guard and the contractor all surveyed the opening as the deadline approached.

Using specialized equipment, the distance of the clearance was measured. The clearance was 308 feet; eight feet wider than what the U.S. Coast Guard required to re-open the passage.

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