Capital Reopens Collapsed I-80 Span in 24 Hours

Tue June 10, 2003
Mark Hoffman

Holidays wreak havoc on the highways of Nebraska. Just ask Les O’Donnell, spokesman for District 6 of the Cornhuskers’ State Department of Roads.

Last Fourth of July, torrential rains washed out the approaches to two bridges on Interstate 80, closing the nation’s busiest highway for a week while repairs were made.

Last week, a bridge over Interstate 80 near Big Springs collapsed when a semi-trailer slammed into it, killing the driver. The truck struck the center median of the bridge and it collapsed like a “V” onto the Interstate, blocking all four lanes in both directions.

The accident shut down a 10-mi. stretch of the busy highway, but, due to the quick work of Capital Contractors, a Lincoln, NE, bridge contractor, the interstate was up and running 24 hours after starting the job.

According to O’Donnell, late on the evening of Friday, May 23, a semi truck left the Interstate and struck the main support post of a county road overpass on I-80. The speed of the impact and the ensuing explosion caused the overpass to collapse onto the Interstate. Both lanes of I-80 were affected. But, it wasn’t just Nebraska-bound traffic that was affected, according to Chuck Kadleck, project manager for Capital Contractors.

“Just west of Big Springs is the Interstate 80-Interstate 76 interchange. Interstate 76 is the main route to Denver from Nebraska. It’s only a few hours from the Colorado border. It affected traffic and people in Colorado, Wyoming and Nebraska,” said Kadleck.

With that in mind — the location and the accident’s occurrence during a holiday weekend — O’Donnell said Nebraska called on the contractor with the best resources — people and equipment — to handle the situation.

“We called Capital because they are very experienced in bridge construction in the state and region. We asked them to be onsite Saturday morning and they were. We asked for their assessment and then took immediate action. We started mobilizing equipment. By 6 p.m. Saturday, equipment was pouring in from around the state and by 7:30 p.m. they started removing the debris,” said O’Donnell.

“Capital was the company to call. Their people are very skilled in bridge construction and destruction,” O’Donnell added. “They have a lot of good people working for them. Once we had all gathered on the scene, I had confidence they would get us up before the weekend was out. I told them to mobilize and get at it and they did and they got it done.”

Kadleck said Capital brought in about one dozen operators from around the state.

“Before we even committed to the job, we were on the phone to see what help was available,” said Kadleck. “It was a holiday weekend. We knew we had the equipment, but we were not sure about the operators. We pulled operators and equipment from other crews and sites around the state.”

Capital brought in a John Deere 200LC excavator, a Komatsu PC 200 excavator, a Kent Hydra-Ram, an Allied concrete cruncher, two John Deere 444H loaders, four portable light towers and a power broom. Most of the equipment came from Murphy Tractor, Lincoln.

“We had constructed a lot of bridges and destructed a lot of bridges, but this was the first time I could recall that we were doing it on an emergency basis. We had to get that road open,” Kadleck said.

Capital had 11 workers onsite as well as seven others helping offsite. Dennis Adams was the job superintendent. Kadleck said equipment came from as far as Grand Island, 220 mi. away and Pleasanton, 200 mi. away.

“We just started demolishing the bridge. We started crunching the deck and the girders and brought everything to the ground. We broke it into manageable pieces so the rubble could be loaded into trucks,” said Kadleck.

He called in subcontractors to help: Nickman Bros., Kearney, and Ogallala Redy-Mix, Ogallala, hauled rubble. He also called on Wurtele Equipment Hauling of Norfolk and Retzlaff Bros. Trucking of Walton.

“Everybody worked around the clock. And, I do mean, around the clock. Non-stop. We were showing ourselves as well as everyone else that it could be done. We knew what we had to do — get the road open as soon as we could,” said Kadleck. “The fact that we got it open before the weekend was out says a lot about our employees and our equipment. They both had a long weekend and put in the effort.”

The two westbound lanes were opened Sunday morning and the two eastbound lanes were cleared for traffic Sunday night — one full day before the weekend was out.

This story also appears on Construction Equipment Guide.