Dirt pile may be tied to bridge tilt

DOVER, Del. – A contractor dumped a mountain of dirt about two stories high and 100 yards long next to an interstate bridge over several years, so much that it may have moved the ground and caused the bridge to tilt, state officials said Wednesday.

The Interstate 495 bridge, a major East Coast thoroughfare traveled by 90,000 vehicles daily, was closed Monday when engineers determined that bridge support columns were leaning.

The contractor said he was working with state officials to remove the dirt from the site, which he was allowed to use under an arrangement with a company that leases land. However, state officials said some of the dirt appeared to be on state land and a fence cordoning off the government’s property was gone.

Officials aren’t sure when the bridge will reopen to traffic, which has been detoured to Interstate 95. No major problems have been reported.

“I really feel bad about what happened,” said contractor James Thomas Jr., 60. “I have absolutely no idea what happened, I really don’t. … I’m not a bridge engineer.”

Engineers suspect the weight of the dirt caused the ground underneath the bridge to shift. Four pairs of the bridge’s support columns were tilting toward the pile of dirt.

Officials have said a system to shore up and brace the bridge will have to be designed, which will take weeks. State officials do not have an estimated price tag but have indicated that they might seek federal money to help pay for the repairs.

Delaware Transportation Secretary Shailen Bhatt said officials did not know about the dirt mound until Monday, when engineers visited the bridge in response to a report received late last week. That report came from an engineer with a private company who was in the area on an unrelated project and saw cracking in the soil around the dirt pile. The engineer then spotted the leaning columns and contacted the transportation agency.