Politics & Government

WATCH: Caltrans Crushes Ortega Bridge to Smithereens

During overnight I-5 Freeway closures Friday and Saturday, six massive jackhammers methodically crushed the south bridge over the freeway.

The six pieces of heavy equipment that tore apart the Ortega Highway I-5 bridge Friday night were reminiscent of prehistoric animals tearing into a huge carcass.

The jointed necks of the treaded vehicles were tipped with man-sized jackhammers that crushed and pushed the concrete of the south-facing bridge decking to the closed highway below.

Earth movers beforehand had pushed a layer of soil across the highway so the falling chunks of concrete didn't bash in the asphalt below, said the California Department of Transportation's Dan Benevento, an engineer helping to oversee the project.

Large cakes of concrete dangled above the freeway as the heads of the mechanical beasts nudged and scraped they from the uncut rebar reinforcements to the roadbed below. Benevento explained that as the concrete is broken and pulled down, workers with torches cut the metal supports embedded in it.

(See what he's describing in the video accompanying this article.)

All would be cleaned off the freeway before 7 a.m. when the highway reopened. The I-5 will close again Saturday night to let crews finish their demolition work and haul away the debris.

The $86.2 million plan has been in the works since 2000. The interchange overhaul will increase the size, height and capacity of the Ortega bridge over the freeway, create a cloverleaf onramp for northbound traffic and reroute westbound drivers from Ortega onto Del Obispo Street.

The two-year construction project will feature intermittent night closures of the north- and southbound on- and off-rams, as well as alternating, several-week, full closures of the ramps and even sections of Ortega Highway west of the freeway.

Video by Adam Townsend

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