OCTA's board of directors honored two Caltrans engineers for leading the successful "Bridge Bash" demolition that reopened the southbound San Diego Freeway (I-405) to traffic hours ahead of schedule after a planned 20-hour overnight full freeway closure.
The major demolition work finished earlier because of effective coordination between Atkinson Construction, Cleveland Wrecking Company, Caltrans and OCTA.
Approximately 100 filled the board room nearly to capacity Monday, Aug. 26, where OCTA CEO Darrell Johnson thanked Senior Bridge Engineer John Zehnder and Principal Assistant Andrew Chuah for their work in completing the demolition safely, efficiently and on time.
"John and Andrew's leadership, dedication and technical expertise are a true testament to all that is possible when a team of professionals, representing multiple agencies, can join together to work toward a common goal," Johnson said. "On behalf of OCTA, I would like to thank John and Andrew for their hard work and recognize the superior level of teamwork they exhibited to make this important undertaking a true success."
Johnson went on to thank the project and construction team in addition to local and regional transportation partners, local public works staff, emergency services personnel and the traveling public for their work in helping to make Bridge Bash a success despite the high risk of closing one of America's busiest freeway stretches.
Crews closed the area of the I-405 between Seal Beach Boulevard and the Garden Grove Freeway (SR-22). This area experiences the nation's highest traffic volumes with 379,000 vehicles on the freeway on a typical busy day, according to a report released Aug. 19 by the Federal Highway Administration
Board members also viewed a video that captured a few of the Bridge Bash highlights, including video of the construction crews, a time-lapse video of the demolition and clips from major media outlets that covered the activity all weekend. View the video below.