Feb. 07--The sound of steady pounding punctured the Saturday morning lull at the corner of Whittier Boulevard and Boyle Avenue, where four oversized jackhammers methodically chipped away at the iconic 6th Street Bridge.
Chunks of concrete cascaded down onto the closed portion of the 101 Freeway, where a heap of debris had already piled up across all of its lanes. Steel rebar, once intricately woven, was exposed and hanging from column to column.
One demolition official stood below the bridge, spraying water up toward the falling concrete to abate the dust.
"As you can tell, there is no way to demolish this section of the bridge safely without shutting down the 101," said Los Angeles City Engineer Gary Lee Moore.
By 10 a.m. Saturday -- 12 hours into the demolition work -- crews had already demolished the entire 220-foot-long section of the roughly 3,500-foot-long bridge deck that they planned to tackle this weekend. The next big focus will be knocking down the three massive columns that were holding up the bridge, Moore said.
The work is proceeding on schedule and the 2.5 miles of freeway closed for the weekend should be reopened by 2 p.m. Sunday, as planned, he said.
"Things are going well right now," Moore said. "We will open the freeway when it is completely safe and the work is completely done."
No injuries have occurred since the work began Friday at 10 p.m.
Lauren Wonder, a spokeswoman for Caltrans, said motorists on the northbound 5 Freeway were facing about a 25-minute delay through downtown on Saturday morning, which is not unusual for the weekend. The southbound 5 was also seeing slower traffic in the area, she said.
While the demolition work continues, Caltrans has been taking advantage of the road closure and doing electrical maintenance work, removing weeds and other work to spruce up the freeway, Wonder said. Officials will also restripe the closed section of the 101 during the cleanup. Lanes have been narrowed by about a foot to accommodate the new bridge design.
On Friday night, crews laid 2 feet of soil over the 101 to protect the freeway surface from falling concrete during the demolition process, Moore said.
Saturday morning, workers set up barricades at Whittier Boulevard and Boyle Avenue to stop commuters from entering the demolition area.
Even after this weekend's work is over, crews will continue to systematically demolish the rest of the bridge over the next nine months, Moore said.
No other road closures like the one affecting the 101 will be necessary to tear down the rest of the bridge -- 110,000 tons of concrete when the demolition is completed, Moore said.
City officials have gone out of their way to warn motorists to stay away, creating the hashtag #101SlowJam and even a music video featuring Mayor Eric Garcetti.
