Epoxy at issue in 17th Street Bridge fencing collapse

By Ariel Hart

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The catastrophic collapse of a 17th Street Bridge railing onto the Downtown Connector last year was related to the epoxy that helped hold the structure together, according to people familiar with the state investigation.

Enlarge photo

John Spink, jspink@ajc.com Road crews worked overnight Sunday into Monday Aug. 15, 201,1 to remove metal fencing that fell Saturday night from the 17th Street bridge and crashed onto six northbound lanes of the Downtown Connector, narrowly missing oncoming motorists.

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The state Department of Transportation plans to announce the findings at a news conference Friday morning, and staff would not discuss them Thursday.

No one was injured in the incident, which occurred late on a Saturday night and sent a 1-ton metal canopy crashing onto the lanes below.

Epoxy is a significant component of some transportation projects.

The collapse came just five years after epoxy failure in a Boston highway tunnel caused a massive concrete ceiling tile to fall and crush a woman’s car, killing her, according to the National Transportation Safety Board.

Investigators in Boston said that the type of epoxy used was prone to slipping over time. As a result of that accident, the federal board asked state transportation departments across the country to identify road projects that used glued bolts -- “adhesive anchors” -- that could present a risk, and to start an inspection and repair program to make sure they don’t fail like they did in Boston.

In addition, the Federal Highway Administration asked states to investigate the types of epoxy it had used, to redo bolts that used a similar type of epoxy to Boston’s, and where the epoxy was different, to institute a “rigorous” inspection program.

The Georgia Department of Transportation has a regular bridge inspection program, returning to each bridge at least every two years. Acting DOT Commissioner Keith Golden would not say whether the department had specifically reinspected the 17th Street Bridge -- completed in 2004, two years before the Boston collapse -- after the federal notices on epoxy, saying he would wait for the news conference Friday.

But he said the DOT “took action” at the time and was proactive in response to Washington's request.