Old I-74 bridge demo to be complete next year

The demolition of the old Interstate 74 bridge is progressing on schedule, on budget and should be complete in about a year. That’s the word from two men in charge of differing aspects of the massive bridge project in the Quad Cities. I-74 Corridor Manager George Ryan and Tom Schebler, a project engineer with the […]

The demolition of the old Interstate 74 bridge is progressing on schedule, on budget and should be complete in about a year. That’s the word from two men in charge of differing aspects of the massive bridge project in the Quad Cities. I-74 Corridor Manager George Ryan and Tom Schebler, a project engineer with the company in charge of doing the bridge demo work, gave an update on the demolition project on Thursday, April 6.

“It’s been very cool being part of history. … You learn a lot every day on this project. It’s a lot of thinking on your feet,” said Mr. Schebler, an engineer with Helm Civil, the East Moline company that was awarded the contract for the demo work. He and Mr. Ryan spoke to a crowd of about 40 people in Riverfront Hall at Western Illinois University’s Moline campus. The hour-long presentation, hosted by the WIU Student Honors Association, largely focused on the work that has been done and the work to come on the bridge project. That project, which began last September, is expected to be complete by early or mid-2024. It will cost about $23.3 million to demo the bridge. Mr. Schebler told the crowd that he is pleased with the project's progress. The bridge demolition is moving along on time and budget, and his work crews have not run into any unexpected problems or challenges. However, it’s still a big project with many challenges every day. “It’s a difficult demolition. … It’s an interesting project,” said Mr. Ryan. The project will become even more difficult if the region gets flooding this spring. If that happens, it will very likely delay the demo work, Mr. Schebler said. “We’re hoping that won’t happen, but we’re also being realistic.” 

Currently, work is progressing in removing the old bridge piece by piece. The project engineer told the crowd that workers are now cutting up sections of the bridge’s concrete deck, loading them on barges and “processing” the rubble so it can be recycled. To date, about 6,000 cubic yards of concrete and 5.3 million pounds of steel have been removed from the bridge, according to the information provided during the presentation. The next steps in the demo project will be continued steel truss, suspension tower and cable removal. Mr. Schebler told the audience that a large crane on a barge recently started work on the demo, which means: “Instead of taking down small piece by small piece, we can take big piece by big piece from the bridge.” While much of the demo project centers on large machinery cutting up and removing the bridge one piece at a time, there will be explosives used on parts of the bridge. At some point, the main cables and parts of the bridge towers will be removed with explosives. That work will go to a subcontractor that specializes in blowing up old bridges, he said. Mr. Ryan added that about a week before the blasting work happens, which will probably be in a few months, officials will notify the public of the work and what “blast areas” to avoid. The two men also told the crowd about the resources used in the project. That includes about 25 workers who are being used on the demo project. (When the new bridge was constructed, anywhere from 250 to 400 workers were on the job at any given time, Mr. Ryan said. The new I-74 bridge opened on Dec. 1, 2021.) Some of the equipment being used on the demo project includes:

• Five cranes
• 11 excavators
• Three end loaders
• Eight manlifts
• Four crew boats
• One small push boat
• One 1,000-horsepower push boat
• Eight equipment and material barges.

Several members of the audience said they were happy with the bridge demo presentation. Noah Seys, 20, of Orion, Illinois, who is an electrical engineering major at WIU, said he found the presentation very interesting. “It’s like putting together pieces of a puzzle,” he said about the many aspects and stages of the demo work. Mr. Seys, who also is president of the WIU Student Honors Association, added that many people likely saw the upcoming explosives part of the demolition as the most interesting part of the Thursday program. “Much to many of my classmates’ pleasure, they will get to see something blown up,” he added.