Watch as center span of Outer Banks bridge is brought down with controlled demolition

The last remaining center span of one of North Carolina’s best known bridges went up in smoke and flying debris this week, as part of a controlled explosion.

Multiple videos shared on social media show the giant concrete span was destroyed Thursday, as motorists waited at a safe distance and the Coast Guard maintained a 1,500-yard safety zone.

The 55-year-old Herbert C. Bonner Bridge is well known to locals and vacationers, who used it to travel the southern Outer Banks. Prior to its construction, a ferry was needed to cross Oregon Inlet.

It has been replaced by the $252 million Marc Basnight Bridge, “the first bridge in the state to incorporate stainless steel to thwart salt water corrosion,” the N.C. Department of Transportation says. The new bridge is expected to have a 100-year life span.

The ongoing removal of the Bonner Bridge made news last month when a section collapsed and killed a construction worker, McClatchy News reported. The 42-year-old man was part of a crew hired to dismantle the old bridge, officials said.

“The collapsed portion of the bridge posed many challenges for removal so a crew from CDI (Controlled Demolition Inc.) placed explosive charges in precise locations that brought the structure safely to the ground,” the U.S. Coast Guard Station Oregon Inlet reported on Facebook.

A 1,000-foot section of the old bridge will remain standing at the south end, as a pedestrian and fishing pier. The decision to leave the section is due in part to “a strong current of water called the Davis Slough” that flows under the span, McClatchy News reported last year. Experts feared removing that section could change the current in the Oregon Inlet, resulting in “beach erosion and rough currents.”

The base of pilings at the north end of the bridge are also being kept to prevent causing “harm to the sensitive wetlands and marine life” near the shore, officials said.

This story was originally published May 28, 2021 at 12:24 PM with the headline "Watch as center span of Outer Banks bridge is brought down with controlled demolition."