"They’re deep and they’ve held the bridge through all the high waters we’ve had this spring. “These piles went way down," Brayshaw said. County Engineer Donald Schramm said pilings were dug about 45 feet into the river bed.Īerial view of the Miamitown bridge collapse in 1989. “The trees and debris were building up like a beaver dam against the bridge and they were afraid it would weaken the bridge, so I ordered it closed at 5:19,” Brayshaw said.īrayshaw said the bridge was sturdy. “It started sinking slowly, then the whole bridge started to go.”Īfter rushing to the scene, county officials told WCPO about the warning and conversations about closing the bridge. It was buckling a little bit on each side of the bridge,” Brater told The Enquirer. “The first thing I noticed was the guardrail. We saw half of the bridge falling down into the water,” said Ron Wells Jr., whose family owned the nearby Bridge Inn.Įd Brater was waiting on the west side to drive across. The bridge had already collapsed from about the middle of the river to the west bank. Scheidt told Beck he should call the sheriff’s office, too.Īt 5:26 p.m., Beck called the sheriff’s office and a dispatcher told him, “Mr. Brayshaw immediately gave the OK.Īt 5:20 p.m., Scheidt called Highway Superintendent Larry Beck to tell him to put up barricades.Īt 5:25 p.m., Scheidt called Beck again and told him National Engineering was calling the sheriff’s office to close the bridge. Officials had been alerted that raging floodwaters from recent heavy rains were piling up debris under the bridge on Harrison Avenue near Ohio 128 and threatening to wash it away.Īt 4:20 p.m., an employee of National Engineering, the company that built the temporary bridge and was building a new permanent bridge next to it, called Ken Scheidt, the Hamilton County Bridge Engineer, and reported that the one-lane span appeared unsafe.Īt 5:19 p.m., almost an hour later, Schiedt called Chief Deputy Engineer William Brayshaw for authorization to close it. After receiving warnings, county officials had ordered the bridge closed just minutes before the Friday rush-hour accident. 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 tragedy was nearly avoided. The National Transportation Safety Board determined 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. Several witnesses reported a car and a pickup truck fell into the river, however only the two occupants of the car were recovered, no other vehicles were found and no other persons were ever reported missing. Eastern Daylight Time, a 140-foot (43 m) section of the 556-foot (169 m) Harrison Road (US 52) temporary bridge over the Great Miami River in Miamitown, Ohio fell about 40 feet (12 m) into the rain-swollen river when a pile bent collapsed due to damage from floating debris.
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