September 3, 2010
by Christine Yeres
Notice that nothing seems to be happening on the bridge? That’s because nothing is happening during the day. MetroNorth insists that work over the railroad tracks take place at night. Workers begin around 7:00 p.m. and finish at 5:00 a.m.
On Wednesday night, workers removed some of the top asphalt of the bridge and some railings. Last night, they concentrated on the underside of the bridge, cleaning up the area and building a pad—between the old north lane of the bridge and the pedestrian bridge—for a very large crane to sit on. From there, the crane will lift off the pieces of the old bridge.
First, workers will saw cut the concrete slabs of the bridge, making holes in the corners of each square piece. Special hooks will grab the slabs by the holes and lift them up and away, like puzzle pieces. Once the concrete is removed, the steel girders will be taken apart.
The temporary pedestrian bridge will remain throughout the demolition period.
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