The new bridge cost $234 million to build, plus $25 million in bonuses for finishing ahead of schedule, according to the Star Tribune. On Septem– more than 13 months after the collapse – the I-35W Saint Anthony Falls Bridge opened. Sunday, May 26, 2002, a towboat operator on the Arkansas River suffered a medical episode and the barge struck the Interstate 40 bridge about 40 miles west of Fort Smith and claimed 14 lives, including a young family from Lavaca. A special ceremony was held Monday morning to observe the I-40 bridge collapse anniversary at Webbers Falls and to remember the 14 people killed that day ten years ago. Their design failure caused a chain reaction that collapsed the whole bridge.īecause of the importance of I-35, officials moved to rapidly rebuild the bridge. More than 100 vehicles were on the bridge at the time and plummeted into the water below, killing 13 people and injuring 145 others.Īn NTSB study found that the metal gusset plates, which connect parts of the bridge, were not strong enough to support the weight of the bridge. In one of the most disastrous structural failures in recent history, the I-35 highway over the Mississippi River collapsed at evening rush hour on August 1, 2007. May 26 marks 20 years since a tugboat hauling two barges slammed into the Interstate 40 (I-40) bridge over the Arkansas River.On Augthe I-35 bridge over the Mississippi River in Minneapolis, Minnesota, collapsed killing 13 people and injuring 245. The bridge collapse and the nearby town of Webbers Falls were the focus of international news coverage over that Memorial Day weekend. Love slammed into Pier 3 of the Interstate 40 bridge, just downstream of Webbers Falls at 7:45 in the morning. 500 feet of the bridge came crashing on to the barges below. A National Transportation Safety Board report shows he lost consciousness, possibly because of an abnormal heart rhythm, while he was piloting the ship. It is estimated Dedmon was unconscious for several minutes. Those 19 people will be remembered during a service scheduled to. Fourteen people died, and five others survived. When Dedmon woke up, he said he remembered seeing a vehicle plunging off the edge of the broken bridge and sounding an alarm. The bridge collapsed after a tow boat pushing two barges crashed into a pier. It is hard to find video from May 26, 2002, without seeing a silver Dodge Dakota that did not go off the edge. In an interview just a month before she died, Goldie Alley told Dave Davis she and her husband were on their way to Arkoma when the bridge collapsed in front of them. “Hey, we didn’t make it."ĭespite a broken back, broken rib and punctured lung between them, Max survived and preached regularly for another ten years. Emergency management officials predicted several fatalities in a bridge collapse over the Arkansas River Sunday, estimating that about five to 12 victims were trapped. “And I said, 'We’ve got to do something.'” She remembers Max saying, “Goldie, we can pray." "We stood there and watched the traffic go in that water,” Alley recalled. The NTSB determined 11 vehicles with 19 people inside went off the bridge. In his decades of service in the Navy, as the current Verdigris police chief and as a firefighter in Muskogee, Jack Shackelford said he has still never seen anything like the bridge disaster.Ģ0 years later, Shackelford remembers the smallest details from those days he spent on the scene. The I-40 Bridge Disaster happened on May 26, 2002, a barge collided with a bridge support near Webbers Falls, causing a 580 foot section of the I-40 bridge. This, in turn, caused the barge he was controlling to collide with a bridge support. Love, experienced a blackout and lost control of the ship. Joe Dedmon, captain of the tugboat Robert Y. Freight barges being transported on the Arkansas River collided with a pier supporting the Interstate 40 road bridge crossing the river. The I-40 bridge disaster was a bridge collapse that occurred southeast of Webbers Falls, Oklahoma on May 26, 2002. Someone he could never forget is the youngest victim, 3-year-old Shea Johnson. The I-40 bridge disaster was a bridge collapse that occurred southeast of Webbers Falls, Oklahoma, United States at 7:45 a.m. It was hard because I had a daughter at that time that was about 3 years old and it kind of hit home" "I actually picked her up off the airboat and put her in the body bag and carried her up to where they had a temporary morgue set up," Shackleford said. On the morning of May 9, 1980, a sudden squall engulfed the Sunshine Skyway Bridge, spanning the mouth of Tampa Bay south of St. Jewell Horne-Hall was Webbers Falls' Mayor in 2002. She lobbied for funding for a memorial and still organizes annual reunions. “He's with us and He strengthens us for whatever comes our way." She said when disasters happen, the town looks to a higher power. No one was ever charged with a crime for the I-40 bridge collapse.
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