You probably don't to want to drive between Dallas and Fort Worth this weekend -- at least, not on I-30. Because beginning at 7 p.m. tonight, and lasting through Sunday night, the Texas Department of Transportation is going to reduce both eastbound and westbound I-30 to a single lane, as TXDoT reduces the northbound Collins Street bridge to rubble as part of its I-30 Mobility Improvement Project.
But, see, two Friends of Unfair Park wanted to know precisely when the Collins Street bridge was getting adiosed, because they want to photograph the demolition. Which is why I called TXDoT spokesman Val Lopez this morning for more specifics. And, yeah, it does sound pretty cool. Why come? The headline may contain the spoiler alert, but jump for the very sexy specifics.
Lopez says the Collins Street bridge will begin its farewell tour at 8 p.m. tonight. Only, he doesn't recommend trying to get near the demolition: It'll be hard to watch, he says, not only because "it's a construction site with its own safety concerns, but there will also be a lot of congestion as we work very hard to detour traffic, and I don't know if it's something easily watched from any vantage point."
But, yeah, he does promise, repeatedly, "It'll be neat." And this is why.
"It'll be pretty cool, actually," Lopez says. "We'll have several crane-like structures that move on their own tracks, and they have a long arm with a penetrating unit at the end of it -- that's what I call it, anyway, because I don't think that's the proper construction term for it. Anyway, what they can do is penetrate the deck and the supports, and, at the same time, it vibrates. Those two things combined demolishes the bridge. And it will be very dramatic. I just don't recommend people wandering up there to watch it."
Problem is, Val, you just said the two magic words that guarantee a very good weekend indeed. --Robert Wilonsky
