On May 26, 1989, about 5:25 p.m. eastern daylight time, a 140-foot section of the 556-foot Harrison Road temporary bridge over the Great Miami River fell about 40 feet into the rain-swollen river after a pile bent collapsed. Seven witnesses reported that a passenger car and a pickup truck fell into the river. However, only a 'bodies of the car's two occupants have been recovered from passenger car and the the river. No other vehicles were found in the river nor are any persons reported missing in the Miamitown area. Witnesses reported an unusual amount of debris floating down the river and striking the pile bents of the bridge prior to the collapse. Although the weather was clear and dry, flooding conditions existed at the time of the collapse and the river had overflowed its bans onto the flood plain.The National Transportation Safety Board determines that the probable cause of the temporary bridge collapse was the selection by the Hamilton County Engineer's Office of a design by the National Engineering and Contracting Company that did not consider lateral loads and the failure of the Hamilton County Engineer’s Office to promptly close the bridge when it became subject to significant debris loading. Contributing to the cause of the collapse was the failure of the Hamilton County Engineer's Office to submit the bridge design plans to the Ohio Department of Transportation for review as required by State law. The primary safety issues raised by this accident are the adequacy of the tempo rary bridge design, the adequacy of procedures for closing temporary and permanent bridges under conditions that exceed bridge design criteria, and the adequacy of current design guidelines and specifications for highway bridges, particularly for debris loading. Safety recommendations addressing these issues were made to the Hamilton County Engineer's Office, the Ohio Department of Transportation, the Federal Highway Administration, the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, and the U.S. Geological Survey. (Author/publisher)
Abstract