Tthree workers were killed and four others were injured when a bridge being prepared for demolition partially collapsed on October 16 in southern Mississippi.
The bridge that carries state Route 149 over the Strong River in Simpson County, southeast of Jackson, Miss., had been closed to traffic for about a month as part of a bridge replacement project, they said Mississippi Department of Transportation officials said in a statement. Columbia, Miss., contractor TL Wallace Construction was working on the bridge ahead of a planned demolition, MDOT added. Simpson County Coroner Terry Tutor identified the three who were killed as Kevin Malone, Charles Ingleharte and Charles Badger.
An MDOT inspector was on the scene when the bridge collapsed but was uninjured, officials added.
The 292-foot-long steel girder bridge with a cast-in-place concrete deck was built in 1943 and sees an average of 2,600 vehicles a day, according to National Bridge Inventory data posted online by the desert sun diary
MDOT plans to replace the bridge under a $25 million contract with TL Wallace that also includes two other bridge replacements along Route 149. In August, the most recent update shared by officials, s ‘they had replaced the decks of the first two bridges and the crews were replaced. doing earthworks to prepare the approaches. The Strong River Bridge is due to be replaced after the other two, which are expected to be completed next year.
The contractor did not immediately return a reporter’s call.
OSHA records show inspectors visited one of the other bridge replacement sites earlier this year for a planned inspection. No citations were issued. An OSHA representative could not immediately say whether the agency was investigating after the collapse.
