Jun 23, 2015 2 min read

DONORA – The historic Donora-Webster Bridge, which has been closed for six years because of its deteriorating condition, will disappear from the landscape in a series of demolition blasts next week.

Beech Construction Inc. of Carnegie said the implosion will occur about 10 a.m. July 1, requiring residents within a 1,000-foot radius of the span on both sides of the Monongahela River in Washington and Westmoreland counties to vacate their homes while it takes place.

The contractor will close roads in the areas at 9 a.m., the time when affected residents are to be evacuated, it stated in a letter mailed to those who must vacate their properties.

Residents will be given five-minute and one-minute siren warnings of the impending implosion, the letter states.

The state Department of Transportation awarded Beech a $2.6 million contract to eliminate the bridge, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places because of the way it was constructed with pins joining its steel beams.

Workers began to dismantle the Webster approach to the 107-year-old steel span in February.

Under an agreement with the state Historical and Museum Commission, PennDOT must donate the bridge’s dedication markers to Donora and Rostraver Township, along with sections of the span’s pin joints and several of the stones that make up its two largest piers.

The evacuation order involves buildings in Donora Industrial Park between just north of Eighth Street to 12th Street and from just above Fifth Street in Webster to 10th Street and Heslop Avenue in Donora. Authorities will sweep the blasting radius several times to make sure it is vacant, Beech stated in the Monday letter.

The sounding of a single, nearly 15-second siren will signal the time when people will be permitted to return to their properties and the roads will reopen. Beech said construction with then begin to rid the site of debris and reopen the river to traffic.