does anybody know how to find a cost breakdown of this project by federal, state, county and city funds used?

 

Low-quality iPhone photo, but pretty good view of the new Hopple-MLK overpass.

 

New ramp from the Hopple Street overpass... according to an old PDF I was looking at on the Mill Creek Expressway site, this ramp will only lead to I-74 West, but that can't be right, can it? Seems more logical that it would allow traffic from Hopple Street to get to either I-74 West or I-75 North.

 

 

We're gonna have a lot of lanes here.

 

^The new ramp will allow access to both I-74 and I-75 NB.  The ramp to I-75 will be very long, it will merge in with the existing ramp from I-74 WB to I-75 NB (In front of Cincy State).  I-74 will be accessed from that ramp by veering off to the left to connect to the I-75 NB to I-74 WB ramp.

_

The I-75 NB to Hopple off ramp was open today. Anyone know when it opened for business? I was caught completely off guard for it and ended up cutting across all four lanes to get off I-75 today.

The I-75 NB to Hopple off ramp was open today. Anyone know when it opened for business? I was caught completely off guard for it and ended up cutting across all four lanes to get off I-75 today.

 

Yeah I saw it myself this morning.  It was a very disorienting sight.  The northbound ramp is still several months from completion. 

The new Hopple ramp has been open for a couple weeks.

I'm seeing multiple reports on Twitter similar to the following:

 

"#BREAKING: Police dispatch is reporting that part of an overpass has collapsed onto SB I-75, north of the new Hopple St. overpass."

 

It must be the old ramp from I-75 NB to Hopple Street, which looped over I-75 SB? This one:

 

That's the one:

 

Wow. 

I was thinking that they were cutting it away and had the lanes shut down, but I guess that was not the case. A tractor trailer hit part of the bridge - and one worker is dead.

Man that's bad.

I was thinking that they were cutting it away and had the lanes shut down, but I guess that was not the case. A tractor trailer hit part of the bridge - and one worker is dead.

 

A tractor trailer hitting one of the supports is a plausible explanation.

 

There is also a half-demolished railroad overpass on I-71 near MLK that is probably at risk if the same thing were to happen there.

^One on I-71 as well.

It doesn't look like the truck hit the bridge.  It looks like it collapsed a few seconds before the truck came along. 

It looks like that backhoe might have been cutting up the pavement and it somehow undermined the bridge.  I would bet that the worker who was killed was in that backhoe and suffered a 20-foot fall. 

It looks like that backhoe might have been cutting up the pavement and it somehow undermined the bridge.  I would bet that the worker who was killed was in that backhoe and suffered a 20-foot fall. 

 

 

My theory is that he was down between the I-beams with the scoop and somehow started turning left or right, flipping one or more of the I-beams sideways.  They don't have any strength when they're flipped over.

^One on I-71 as well.

 

That's what I meant... Fixed my post.

It looks like that backhoe might have been cutting up the pavement and it somehow undermined the bridge.  I would bet that the worker who was killed was in that backhoe and suffered a 20-foot fall. 

 

 

My theory is that he was down between the I-beams with the scoop and somehow started turning left or right, flipping one or more of the I-beams sideways.  They don't have any strength when they're flipped over.

 

I'm surprised they would do that kinda work while traffic is moving under it.

edit: oops wasn't looking at the picture properly

It's interesting they put a truck ban in-effect for both southbound and northbound I-75 inside the loop. It southbound will be closed at least 48 hours. They still have to get the construction workers body. I heard he was under girder. I hope he RIP.

It's amazing how all of the comments on the online articles complain about "America's crumbling infrastructure..." even though this structure was in the process of being replaced.  Just watch the media ignore that fact and use this collapse as evidence that we need to replace...infrastructure that is being replaced. 

I did a search for "Hopple" on Twitter and was shocked by the number of people saying, "I can't believe the new Hopple Street overpass collapsed. I drive over that every day!"

 

The stupid....it burns.

Here's the damage:

 

Definitely stay away from the cincinnati.com comments section on this one.  My eyes, the goggles do nothing. 

I turned on the live footage on cincinnati.com and they are currently pulling away the truck from the accident. Perfect timing.

I was amazed at how few traffic problems there seemed to be this morning. I expected overflow onto I-71, Norwood Lateral, and I-74 to lead to horrible traffic... but this morning was - if anything - smoother than average. Any idea why? Was I-275 worse than usual with all thru-traffic being routed around the beltway?

Maybe we don't need I-75. Boondoggle!

the bridge has such a clean break on the western side, but the eastern side looks like it was just torn off its supports. i don't understand why they'd cut clear through on the western side without some way of supporting the bridge.

Horrible accident and I feel so bad for the victim and his family.  Obviously it looks like an engineering error and OHSA might hammer the state on this.  What a freak accident for the victim, and luckily, it could have been much worse.  Though I doubt that makes the victim's family feel any better.

It looks like that backhoe might have been cutting up the pavement and it somehow undermined the bridge.  I would bet that the worker who was killed was in that backhoe and suffered a 20-foot fall. 

 

 

My theory is that he was down between the I-beams with the scoop and somehow started turning left or right, flipping one or more of the I-beams sideways.  They don't have any strength when they're flipped over.

 

It also looks like the concrete had been removed from the beams to the east of the span over the highway, but the beams were still there (I think they are piled up twisted in the east lane just south of the collapse, but I haven't been by this bridge in awhile). That would detract from the lateral stability of the bridge even more, not to mention the fact that what was previously a pretty uniformly distributed load of was no longer such.

I was amazed at how few traffic problems there seemed to be this morning. I expected overflow onto I-71, Norwood Lateral, and I-74 to lead to horrible traffic... but this morning was - if anything - smoother than average. Any idea why? Was I-275 worse than usual with all thru-traffic being routed around the beltway?

 

People took the subway. 

It will be more than 48 hours. They have to do an investigation. Clear the debris. Inspect the interstate itself.

It will be more than 48 hours. They have to do an investigation. Clear the debris. Inspect the interstate itself.

 

Certainly pushed the Oak Hills terrorist off the front page. 

It will be more than 48 hours. They have to do an investigation. Clear the debris. Inspect the interstate itself.

 

The Business Courier reports  that "ODOT officials and the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration have finished their investigation at the scene of the incident" and now they need to finish cleaning up the mess and inspect the pavement.

the bridge has such a clean break on the western side, but the eastern side looks like it was just torn off its supports. i don't understand why they'd cut clear through on the western side without some way of supporting the bridge.

The western side broke off where there was a pin connection on the beams and a joint on the bridge. In other words, the beams were not continuous along the structure. At that time, complex geometry bridges were constructed of simple beam segments connected together because that is only what the calculation methods permitted (could only compute and analyze simple beam segments 'on the board').

 

^ I think the even more critical thing is that there were joints on both sides.  From the photos of the wreck, it looks like they had removed all of the concrete from the steel beams to the left of the support columns on the left shoulder.  The trouble is, the beams are cantilevered over the shoulders, and removing the weight from the left side of those columns also removes the counterbalancing.  It's like being on a stationary seesaw, but then the other person gets off while your feet are up.  In this case, the backhoe was parked right over that joint, adding more weight to the "wrong" side of the pivot. 

 

Man that would suck to die that way.

Man that would suck to die that way.

 

It brings back terrible memories of the O'Donnell Park collapse in 2010 for me.  I was working across the street at Summerfest when this happened and still have nightmares about it.

 

http://www.jsonline.com/news/milwaukee/97153569.html

ODOT just posted on Facebook that I-75 is open to southbound traffic. I'm amazed it was closed for just less than 24 hours. There must not have been much (any) damage to the road structure.

^ I think the even more critical thing is that there were joints on both sides.  From the photos of the wreck, it looks like they had removed all of the concrete from the steel beams to the left of the support columns on the left shoulder.  The trouble is, the beams are cantilevered over the shoulders, and removing the weight from the left side of those columns also removes the counterbalancing.  It's like being on a stationary seesaw, but then the other person gets off while your feet are up.  In this case, the backhoe was parked right over that joint, adding more weight to the "wrong" side of the pivot. 

 

If you study the photos of the collapse, you will see the remains of a temporary support used to support the joint on the east side of the bridge (left shoulder) after the first span was removed...It appears to have been made of salvaged beams from another bridge demolished for the project.

 

 

 

ODOT just posted on Facebook that I-75 is open to southbound traffic. I'm amazed it was closed for just less than 24 hours. There must not have been much (any) damage to the road structure.

Contractor was being fined liquidated damages for every 15 minutes I-75 was closed (Possibly every minute depending on the time of day)

This is a picture of what the bridge looked like when it was built.

Red = Steel beams

White =  Concrete piers and concrete deck

Yellow = excavator

 

Note that the center section rests not on the columns but on the adjacent beams. The whole thing is held together by gravity. This is called cantilever construction.

 

 

 

This is what the bridge looked like just before the collapse. The concrete on the eastern span has been removed, and the excavator is on the center span. The weight of the excavator and the deck on the center span is no longer counterbalanced by the weight of the deck on the eastern span, because the deck has been removed. 

 

 

This is what the bridge looked like during the collapse. The center span is on the ground and the steel beams of the eastern span are up in the air.

 

 

The steel beams seen in the photo were not temporary supports, but were the beams from the eastern span itself. The operator was crushed by these beams when they came down.

 

An ODOT traffic camera captured the whole thing, although from a distance. By chance, there happened to be a gap in traffic, and there were no vehicles under the bridge. Had this happened at a more busy time it could have been much worse. One truck driving southbound was not able to stop in time and crashed into the bridge.

 

As reported in the news, "If they had taken out the center section first, everything would have been all right." Someone made a serious mistake in removing the deck of the eastern span first, making the whole bridge unstable.

 

 

 

 

How do you take out the center first? Remove the deck with a trackhoe then pull out the beams with a crane?

Their were two on the bridge. The one that got killed was not the operator. The worker that got killed was on the bridge itself. It is true the girders came down on him.

  ^ I heard that today. Sorry for the misinformation.

The steel beams seen in the photo were not temporary supports,

 

yeah, I realized that after that post was made. I never would have imagined that they were beams from span 1 that essentially flipped over the pier and landed laterally along the pier

 

 

I-75 will be closed overnight four nights this week between Mitchell Ave. and the Norwood Lateral, presumably for work on the railroad overpass just south of the lateral.

New proposed route from I-74 to Cincinnati State faces council scrutiny

Mar 18, 2015, 1:16pm EDT

Chris Wetterich Staff reporter and columnist- Cincinnati Business Courier

 

 

By the time the Ohio Department of Transportation closes the current off-ramp from eastbound Interstate 74 to Central Parkway in 2017 or 2018, state officials hope to have started on a replacement for access to Central Parkway and Cincinnati State Technical and Community College.

 

But members of the Cincinnati City Council are not impressed by what ODOT has come up with, nor is the city's $21 million share of the $42 million project recommended for the fiscal year 2016 budget.

 

http://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2015/03/18/new-proposed-route-from-i-74-to-cincinnati-state.html