The remains of the old I-74 bridge bridge over the Mississippi River between Bettendorf and Moline, Illinois will go out with a bang.
The DOT’s Ahmad Abu Afifeh says demolition experts will topple the towers and suspension cables of the westbound side of the old bridge on Sunday, August 27th.
“They locate those explosives at specific locations to allow the tower to collapse in the direction that they want. And afterward, they go ahead and pull the rubble and then all the steel from the water,” he says. Ahmad Abu Afifeh says there are two large towers about 160 feet up in the air, and two smaller towers on the outside that helped anchor the cables into the foundation.
“There’s behind the scenes a lot of engineering happening a lot of design and analysis happening to make sure the blast charges are enough to collapse towers at the same time. You don’t want to over explode a bridge,” he says They used explosives on the eastbound towers of the bridge back on June 18th. There’s been a program underway for several years to relocate mussels from the bridge area. And he says they will send out a signal designed to keep animals away.
“Those are not in the water, those are out in the air, and they produce some sound that allow the fish and the birds and everything else to escape the area,” Ahmad Abu Afifeh says.
There is no designated area to watch the explosion, as he says you should watch it online. The charges to bring down the bridge towers will be set off as early as 7 a.m. if the weather cooperates.
The new bridge opened back in 2021.
(This story was updated to indicate there is not a designated area to watch)