Engineer finds signs of corrosion in collapsed bridge at North Carolina speedway

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May 21, 2000
Web posted at: 9:12 p.m. EDT (0112 GMT)

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CONCORD, North Carolina (CNN) -- Some signs of corrosion were found in steel strands on a key girder of the pedestrian bridge that collapsed here Saturday night, injuring more than 100 people.

VIDEO CNN's Brian Cabell looks over the wreckage of the collapsed walkway at Lowe's Motor Speedway in Concord, North Carolina. Real 28K 80K Windows Media 28K 80K     EMERGENCY CALL-IN: A special number has been set up to provide families with information about the injured: 704-783-3900     ALSO Drivers always felt walkway was solid structure     MESSAGE BOARD Structural disasters

Don Idol, an assistant state bridge inspection engineer, said he found the corrosion after a preliminary inspection of the 80-foot-long slab of the bridge that collapsed onto U.S. 29 outside Lowe's Motor Speedway.

"I did observe what appeared to be some corrosion on the pre-stressing strands at the failure point," Idol said, adding that he had not concluded his investigation.

Those steel strands, encased in concrete, are the main load-bearing component of such bridges, Idol said. The bridge was designed to carry 100 pounds per square foot, he said.

Because the bridge was owned by Lowe's, state officials had never inspected it. The speedway is responsible for carrying out its own inspections of the structure, according to Idol.

The 400-foot-long bridge, which connected the speedway with a parking lot on the other side of the four-lane highway, was five years old.

Part of it plunged 25 feet to the highway around 11:15 p.m. Saturday as fans were departing The Winston NASCAR race.

Racetrack officials said 107 people were injured, one of them critically. At least 91 people were taken to seven hospitals in the area.

"Our prayers, our thoughts, and our sympathies go out to the injured people and their relatives and friends," said Lowe's President H.A. "Humpy" Wheeler.

"I heard a crack first time, and the second crack, it just went down," said Greg Southern, who was among those who tumbled to the pavement of U.S. 29 below. "Everybody was on top of each other; it was awful."

Jerry Gappens, a spokesman for the speedway, said the bridge, which was built in October 1995, "is one of the most modern in the state."

A second walkway was shut while inspectors checked it.

Next week is the Coca Cola 600, the racetrack's biggest event of the year. To accommodate fans trying to get to the speedway, officials will revert to the pre-1995 practice of stopping traffic on the highway and escorting fans across it to the parking lots.

"Fans are pretty resilient people," Gappens said. "They come here to be entertained and forget about the everyday hardships of life."

The southbound lanes of U.S. 29 remained closed Sunday. Officials predicted they would be reopened by Monday morning, after engineers finished their inspection and cranes had removed the debris.

Police officials said the toll could have been worse: traffic under the bridge had been halted when the accident occurred.

Correspondent Brian Cabelland The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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