C.C. Clay Bridge weeks away from demolition
Explosives to bring down span in about a month
The Clement Comer Clay Bridge on U.S. 231 has stood over the Tennessee River for 75 years, but its life span is about over with a few weeks left.
Crews with Scott Bridge Co. are about to begin demolishing the bridge as part of the company's contract with the state to build the new bridge, which opened last week.
Workers will remove the concrete deck of the Clay Bridge and a barge below it will catch the concrete debris.
Strategically placed explosive charges will be used to drop the bridge into the river.
It will be "at least" a month before Scott Bridge blows the Clay Bridge, Ervin Fennell, the project supervisor for Scott Bridge, said Monday.
The Coast Guard will stop traffic on the Tennessee River once the explosive charges are in place, a Guard spokesman said.
Scott Bridge will also have to remove the structure that falls into the river because another bridge is planned for the same route as the Clay Bridge.
The Alabama Department of Transportation has tentatively scheduled construction to begin next year on that bridge.
The bridge was named for Clement Comer Clay, a Huntsville resident who served Alabama's governor and as a U.S. senator before the Civil War. He died in Huntsville in 1866.
The Clay Bridge was among 15 memorial toll bridges built by the Alabama Bridge Co. between 1929 and 1931.
The B.B. Comer Bridge in Scottsboro will be the only remaining memorial bridge once the Clay Bridge goes down. The Comer Bridge is also scheduled to be replaced.
Other memorial bridges built during that period include the George S. Houston Bridge in Guntersville and the Keller Memorial Bridge in Decatur, both of which have been removed in the last 14 years.
The DOT offered to give the Clay Bridge to agencies and groups that could meet preservation requirements, but couldn't find any qualified takers.
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