KEARNEY, Mo. — One person is dead, and three others were injured when a bridge under construction collapsed near Kearney, Missouri in Clay County Wednesday afternoon.
A spokesperson for the Clay County Sheriff’s Office said the workers were pouring concrete on the bridge deck around 1:45 p.m. when the collapse happened.
Emergency crews had to reinforce the bridge before they could rescue the trapped contractors.
What was once a single-lane wooden bridge over Carroll Creek has been closed since 2016. In May of last year, Clay County approved the reconstruction of a paved two-lane bridge designed by WSP Engineering as part of the federal Off-System Bridge Replacement and Rehabilitation program.
“This morning when I left I noticed there were a lot of vehicles down there so I figured they were pouring concrete whatever they were doing a big job today,” Stacey Milligan said who is a neighbor in the area.
After a WSP Engineering onsite inspection, contractors with Lehman Construction were pouring concrete on the 148th Street bridge deck Wednesday afternoon when it collapsed.
Four were initially trapped, three were able to get out of a mixture of wet concrete and rebar and were taken to area hospitals.
The sheriff’s department said it took firefighters 90 minutes to extricate the construction worker.
He was pronounced dead at the collapse.
The bridge was scheduled for completion by next Spring.
