ADOT orders temporary bracing after bridge collapse

State transportation officials are asking contractors to add temporary bracing to bridges under construction in the wake of Thursday’s bridge collapse in Mesa.

Because nine of 11 girders fell on a 114-foot long bridge section under construction, the Arizona Department of Transportation wants contractors to brace girders on other bridge projects.

Video: Loop 202 collapse

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Graphic: See how the bridge is supposed to function

ADOT can’t order the bracing on contracts that already have been issued, but agency spokesman Doug Nintzel said state officials have advised contractors on bridge projects to do so out of caution.

“We think it would be wise in light of what happened Thursday,” Nintzel said.

The contractor on the Mesa project, Pulice Construction, was already bracing girders at the site on Friday, Nintzel said. The braces are made of wooden two-by-fours.

ADOT requires bracing on projects near traffic, but now would like the same standard even when crews are working away from the public.

Nobody was injured at the construction project to build the last section of the Loop 202 Red Mountain Freeway in east Mesa.

Pulice and ADOT are continuing their investigation of the bridge that collapsed while it was under construction. Incomplete structures are at greater risk of failure before the entire structural system is in place, ADOT officials said, so the collapse does not indicate a poor design.

ADOT is looking into the girders that fell and at the two that did not to see if that can provide more clues, Nintzel said.

The on-site inspection of materials should wrap up early next week, Nintzel said. ADOT doesn’t know how long it will take to complete the investigation. The collapse will not delay the scheduled opening of the freeway in summer 2008.