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Repair work continues on Interstate 375
What took minutes to destroy will take weeks to rebuild.
That's the result of the fiery tanker crash a little more than a week ago that rendered a major highway artery into downtown St. Petersburg useless.
Repair work began almost immediately on the stretch of Interstate 375 that was damaged and continues to progress.
Crews have been working around the clock on the crippled bridge section and now demolition crews are finishing what the fire started.
"Right now, the contractor is taking out the section of the damaged bridge deck,'' said Kris Carson of the Florida Department of Transportation. "We call that the demolition process. He's 85 percent done with that.''
The nest step is to set the new concrete beams on the bridge. But plenty of work remains before the ramp reopens at the start of next month. In the meantime, at least 20,000 drivers are rearranging their routes in and out of the area.
FDOT said the tanker that flipped over and exploded caused such an intense fire that damage repairs will cost anywhere
between $1 and $2 million. According to the Florida Highway Patrol, the fuel and fire spread like lava from a volcano.
The molten mixture consumed 86 feet of concrete on the ramp and damaged several support columns in the process.
According to authorities, the truck's driver failed to negotiate the turn on the overpass, flipped several times and hit a wall, setting off several explosions that knocked chunks of concrete out of the overpass.
The driver, 47-year-old Ronald Kennedy of Zephyrhills, was killed in the accident.
St. Petersburg city officials will release total damage estimates sometime next week. So far, figures show $500,000 in losses for the city in construction equipment destroyed when the flames poured down off the overpass onto a city equipment yard below.
"It (the fire) has no where to go but down. It goes up over the wall, down the drains and into the city maintenance yard below,'' said FHP spokesman Trooper Larry Coggins. "Sets things on fire there and then pours down in the drain systems. Again on fire, setting the fuels and liquids that are naturally in the sewer system on fire."
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