Limited Twin Span work set to resume

Six days after a girder collapsed on the new Interstate 10 Twin Span bridge and dumped 10 construction workers into Lake Pontchartrain, killing one, the Louisiana Department of Transportation Development gave the OK to Boh Bros.

Construction is to resume on the new bridge on a limited basis.

“They can’t do the work they were doing when the accident occurred until new safety procedures are put in place,” DOTD spokesman Mark Lambert said.

On the afternoon of Oct. 30, workers were putting a steel girder in place on the new span when it snapped. Nine of the 10 workers that fell into the lake were quickly rescued by deputies with the St. Tammany Sheriff’s Office, with no injuries more serious than a broken arm.

The 10th worker, Eric Blackmon, 44, of Cape Coral, Fla., was not so lucky. He was dragged under by the girder and pinned to the bottom. It took divers and a crane several hours to lift the debris, and recover Blackmon’s body about 6:30 that evening.

Mark Lombard, chief forensics investigator with the St. Tammany Coroner’s Office said Tuesday that after an autopsy, it was determined that Blackmon drowned.

“He was asphyxiated,” Lombard said.

Work on the bridge, which is scheduled for completion by 2010, was halted, but then DOTD gave the go-ahead Monday to resume limited work while an investigation was conducted by the DOTD, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the Federal Highway Administration.

Lambert said the workers cannot work near the area where the accident occurred and cannot put up girders until the DOTD and OSHA determine how the accident occurred and what can be done to prevent such tragedies in the future. He added that DOTD wants to finish the investigation as soon as possible.

However, OSHA said it would take at least six months to finish their inquiry.