![]() ![]() In the meantime, the design contractors returned completed plans after 12 days, 4 days ahead of their bid. They moved their crane and barge equipment upstream when ODOT called on them to help with recovery and demolition operations at the I-40 site. The plans were reviewed and passed back to consultants electronically rather than by mail, shaving several more days off the process.Īt the time of the crash, crews with Jensen Construction were working on another bridge project on nearby US-59. This was the first time that shop drawings were included in the engineering contract. The work order was ready just three days after the accident. “We looked at how fast they could put together biddable construction plans and innovative design ideas, along with their expertise, resources, and availability.”Ī cost plus contract-with an hourly rate rather than a lump sum-was signed with Poe and Associates that afternoon. “We went through the interviews and selection process in only two days,” Allen says. ![]() ![]() Gatz, together with others in ODOT, Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) officials, and Greg Allen, Assistant Bridge Engineer with ODOT’s Bridge Division, set up interviews with three consulting firms right after the accident. ![]() This came in handy in the wake of the barge crash.īy outsourcing the bridge design, the Project Management Division cut even more time off the process. Fortunately, in the two years prior to the accident, the Division’s Contract Administration group had already been streamlining its professional services contracting process, cutting it from six months to two. The Project Management Division was heavily involved in procuring the engineering services associated with the bridge reconstruction project. You could say it rippled through the whole agency in some form or fashion.” “You don’t have to consider just the people that were working out there,” Gatz says, “but also the people that their absence impacted who stepped up behind them and took care of business. Tim Gatz, Division Manager with ODOT’s Project Management Division, estimates that hundreds of ODOT workers were impacted by the accident. Control of the site was then transferred to the Oklahoma Department of Transportation (ODOT) on May 30, just five days after the accident. With an estimated total user cost of $430,000 per day for each day the bridge remained closed, there was no time to waste in getting the bridge back in operation.Īs the initial action agency on the scene, the Oklahoma Highway Patrol coordinated rescue and recovery efforts until the last body and vehicle were retrieved from the river. Not only did the accident result in the loss of life, it devastated one of the most vital east-west transportational links in the United States. To witnesses, the crash looked deceptively slow, but the barges hit with such an impact that a third of the heavily traveled bridge collapsed, sending 10 cars into the water 60 feet below. Two barges, heading north through the McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System early that Sunday morning, veered from the river’s navigational channel and collided with the Interstate 40 bridge that crosses the waterway near Webbers Falls. Now, the tiny town is a stopping point for some, a place for travelers to reflect on the Memorial Day weekend tragedy that took place there on May 26, 2002. With a population of 722, Webbers Falls, OK, was once little more than a dot on the map to area highway motorists speeding past on their way to points east and west. Just 65 days after the barge accident, the I-40 bridge reopens to traffic. User costs total about $22 million in gas, wear, time lost to motorists, etc.įinal paving is poured on the bridge deck. Traffic counts show nearly 20,000 vehicles, including local traffic, use detours. Victims are remembered at a onemonth anniversary ceremony. Clock on incentive deadline starts running at 6 p.m. OK Transportation Commission awards reconstruction contract. On-site, pre-bid rebuilding meeting held. OK Transportation Commission approves a contract for demolition.ĭemolition staging area already holds 2,000 tons of deposited debris. Webbers Falls, OK, sets up a memorial in a city park near the river. The last of 14 bodies is recovered from the river. The I-40 bridge near Webbers Falls, OK, reopened to traffic just 65 days after a barge accident destroyed it.īarges crash into the I-40 bridge near Webbers Falls, OK. ![]()
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