PITTSBURGH —
UPDATE 8:05 a.m.: The Commercial Street Bridge has been imploded!
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UPDATE 7:50 a.m.: The implosion is scheduled to happen within the next 30 minutes.
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UPDATE: PennDOT said the implosion is scheduled to occur before 10 a.m.
They added that an additional update will be provided when the explosion is expected to occur within a 30-minute timeframe.
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After being postponed on Wednesday night, the Commercial Street Bridge implosion is now scheduled to happen this morning.
The new demolition window is between 8 a.m. and 11 a.m. on Thursday.
Yesterday, PennDOT gave an 8-hour window for the planned explosive demolition, but safety concerns pushed it back.
Sources tell 11 Investigator Chief Investigator Rick Earle that there were “issues with some part of the deck that prevented crews from moving some equipment in time.” Eventually, they ran out of daylight and decided to call it a day.
City officials told Earle that they expressed concerns about the timeline earlier today, but they moved police, fire and EMS into place even though they were not optimistic about the demolition happening on Wednesday.
A PennDOT spokesperson added that crews were working to install explosives and put in a fence, which couldn’t be done in time on Wednesday.
Channel 11’s cameras will be back out at the scene this morning. We will have you covered with LIVE coverage of the demolition on TV, streaming in our apps and on the WPXI YouTube page.
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