Last week’s fire on Interstate 85 has stirred debate about whether construction materials should be stored beneath underpasses.
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The pipes kept underneath I-85 were made of fiberglass and ‘high density polyethylene,’ or HDPE. The Georgia Department of Transportation says those materials aren’t highly flammable. But Mi Geum Chorzepa, an assistant professor at UGA’s college of engineering, says the material could be partly to blame.
“I personally was surprised to see that [the bridge] came down very fast,” she said. “So, the question is, ‘How did it collapse?’”
Chorzepa said the material in the pipes combined with the way they were stacked on top of each other probably caused the fire to become unusually hot.
State officials haven’t admitted wrongdoing, but they’re also taking precautions. GDOT Commissioner Russell McMurry said this week storing the pipes under I-85 didn’t violate department policies. But he also said no other bridges in the state have supplies stored underneath them.
“Our efforts [were] to keep the material there, from somebody not stealing the material,” McMurry said at a press conference Tuesday. “Obviously, what we know now if we knew then, we would not have the material stored in the fashion that it was stored.”
Chorzepa said there is a silver lining.
“It was a very high temperature, and the collapse was only isolated on one single span, I think that tells a lot about how the bridge was designed well.”
In response last week’s fire, Tennessee’s Department of Transportation made sure no materials were stored under its bridges. Maryland officials also banned keeping anything under overpasses.
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