Month after tanker fire, I-70 bridge on west side reopens

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH)- Less than a month after a tanker truck caught fire destroying the bridge on Interstate 70 east over the Interstate 270 ramp, the roadway will be reopened Tuesday morning.

According to ODOT, the bridge will reopen at 6 a.m. Tuesday, and the contractor will receive another $240,000 for having the work completed early.

The crash, which happened at the end of June, caused an estimated $1 million in damage when a tanker truck crashed on the ramp between I-270 and 70 on the west side of the city, burning beneath an I-70 bridge that carries traffic toward downtown.

ODOT director Jerry Wray said he wants his organization to be quick and reliable.

“I’d like to say this is not your grandpa’s ODOT and we are going to set the bar high,” he said. “We’d like to be the standard of excellence in terms of the way we do business. Our vision is to be a highly productive and professional organization and this is an example of what we can do.”

Bob Hunt, contractor for Shelly & Sands Inc., said some of the workers put in over 100 hours a week.

“It was a project of extremes and when it’s planned out correctly, with cooperation you can get jobs like this done,” he said. “Now, the most challenging part is the manhour consumption from the contracting standpoint and to address a question that was asked earlier. If you were to do this on every project, if this were the standard, the industry couldn’t do this.”

Wray said people often want immediate results.

“One of our currencies is time,” Wray said. “A lot of the time we think about the money involved and what people want from us. They want the road open and they want the bridge open and they want the road smooth and they want it now.”

The follow restrictions will be in place Monday night, July 20 and overnight in preparation for the reopening:

7 p.m.: I-70 East will be reduced to one lane through the crossover

8 p.m.: I -70 East will close through the crossover. Eastbound traffic will be forced to take I-270 South.

Midnight: The new bridge on I-70 East will open to traffic.

Midnight: The ramp from I-70 East to I-270 South will close.

6 a.m., Tuesday morning, July 21: The following ramps will reopen: