HESPERIA, CA. (Pain In The Pass) >> Eight years ago today, perhaps the worst day in the history of the City of Hesperia and for Interstate 15. Early in the afternoon of a breezy Cinco de Mayo, workers were finishing up cutting rebar on the new Ranchero Road bridge. This caused a traffic nightmare in both directions.
The bridge was being built, and was about one week away from concrete being poured. The bridge caught fire at about 1:30pm. On a Monday afternoon May 5th , 2014, when workers were cutting steel reinforcing bars with blowtorches. With a gust of wind and a sparks flying into the wood “falsework” of the bridge. The fire started and it didn’t take long for debris to start falling from the bridge onto northbound 15 freeway lanes. This initially forced a full freeway closures in both directions. The bridge was fully ingulfed in less than a half an hour. Then the bridge collapsed onto the freeway below. San Bernardino County Fire Department and Caltrans had to use heavy equipment to extinguish the flames and to clear the lanes. They had all lanes reopened the next day.
After the investigation they found a worker cutting rebar with a cutting torch sparking and igniting a wooden section of the bridge. Afternoon winds were blowing up to 20 to 30 mph before and during the fire.
Ranchero Road Interchange bridge rebuild was open fully after nine months of the devastating fire.
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