Updated 4:30 pm, Thursday, February 3
It took two front-end loaders to lift a massive 34-ton concrete bridge girder that fell off a tractor-trailer truck and landed on Eastville Avenue, on Thursday, February 3, about 3 pm, afternoon. The mishap occurred as the truck was heading to a job site at Little Bridge and made a turn at the sharp corner near Martha’s Vineyard Hospital.
The 85-foot-long bridge deck component blocked both lanes of the road for about 90 minutes. State Police guided traffic along the road’s shoulder, one direction at a time. Drivers slowly edged past the enormous girder, gaping at the sight.
A driver for the MIG Corporation was operating the truck, to deliver the 34-ton concrete part to the bridge reconstruction project on Beach Road, opposite Joseph Sylvia State Beach. A strap securing the girder to the truck bed parted as the driver rounded the corner.
The girder gouged several large chunks of asphalt from the road as it fell from the truck, but the girder itself appeared undamaged.
The MIG corporation, based in Acton, delivers bridge building girders by barge. This was arrived in September of 2009, in preparation for the two-year project to replace Big Little bridges. The project is to be done this spring.
The construction company scrambled to figure out how to move the bridge component. The company had used a 200-foot crane, brought to the Island by barge, to lift the components into place at the construction site.
The crane is so large that the work crew must disassemble and transport it in pieces.
