Three held, charged in fire that collapsed Atlanta road
Repairs to I-85 will take months to fix, hike city’s gridlock.
Authorities said ATLANTA — three people were arrested Friday in connection with a fire a day earlier that brought down an Atlanta highway bridge and threatens to snarl the city’s already notorious traffic for months.
Georgia Deputy Insurance Commissioner Jay Florence identified the three suspects as Basil Eleby, Sophia Bruner and Barry Thomas. Eleby faces a charge of criminal damage to property; Bruner and Thomas were each charged with criminal trespass.
Florence would not discuss how the fire was started or why, saying those details would be released as the investigation progresses.
The fire broke out Thursday afternoon in an area used to store state-owned construction materials and equipment, sending flames and smoke high into the air. Fire authorities said they had not determined how the blaze started.
The highway already had been closed when the bridge collapsed, and there were no injuries.
Georgia Transportation Commissioner Russell McMurry said his department stored coils of plastic conduit used in fiber optic networks beneath the span but insisted they were noncombustible.
McMurry said 350 feet of highway will need to be replaced in both directions on I-85, which carries about 400,000 cars a day through the city and is one of the South’s most important north-south routes. He said repairs will take months.
The collapse effectively “puts a cork in the bottle,” Georgia State Patrol Commissioner Mark McDonough said.
Traffic was bumper to bumper on nearby streets Friday as drivers were forced to take a detour. The collapse took place a few miles north of downtown, and the effects could fall most heavily on commuters from Atlanta’s densely populated northern suburbs.
Connie Bailey-Blake, of Dacula, 37 miles northeast of Atlanta, waited for a MARTA commuter train to reach her job downtown. She typically drives, often by way of the interstate.
“I’m supposed to be at work at 9 a.m. and it’s 9:15 a.m.,” Bailey-Blake said. “The first few days are going to be difficult.”
Amelia Ford picked a new route to work by car and said it took her 45 minutes to travel 3 miles from her Atlanta home to the nearest open on-ramp to the interstate.
MARTA increased rail service and had additional staff on hand to help passengers.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao promptly provided $10 million for the initial repair work, and the Federal Highway Administration promised more in emergency repair funds. Officials gave no estimate of how much the job would cost.
Built in 1953 and renovated in 1985, the span scored high in its most recent inspection, receiving a rating of 94.6 out of 100 in 2015, said Natalie Dale, a spokeswoman for the Georgia Transportation Department.
Lauren Stewart, director of the Structural Engineering and Materials Laboratory at Georgia Tech in Atlanta, said intense heat can compromise even steel-reinforced concrete.
“With fires, especially fires that burn for long periods and with high heat, you can see structures, anything from buildings to bridges, can have their material properties degrade,” Stewart said.
It has happened before. In 1996, a fire in a big pile of tires beneath I-95 in Philadelphia left a span too weak to handle cars, forcing authorities to shut down 4 miles of the busy East Coast route for repairs.
Andy Herrmann, a retired partner with the New Yorkbased engineering firm Hardesty & Hanover, said concrete will undergo severe cracking at about 1,500 degrees.