In April 1982, a booming noise interrupted the work of dozens of laborers on the Cline Avenue bridge before sections of a 444-foot span of the bridge collapsed like dominoes.
Many region residents on Friday remembered those dramatic events as state highway officials closed that very section of the bridge -- between Riley Road and the Indiana Harbor Ship Canal -- citing structural reasons.
It's a bridge span born of tragedy.
A collapse of the span during its construction more than 27 years ago killed 14 workers and maimed another 16 as chunks of concrete, rebar (steel used to strengthen concrete) and laborers plunged distances of up to 65 feet to the ground below.
Collapse survivor Donald Ketchum, of Valparaiso, described as "chilling" the call he received from his wife Friday morning regarding the closing of the same span that claimed the life of his brother and nearly killed Ketchum so long ago.
"I don't know what to think," Ketchum said. "Time definitely heals all wounds, and I hadn't thought about that day in a long time."
Ketchum was laying concrete with his brother, Billy Bricker, on the bridge on April 15, 1982. Ketchum plunged more than six stories into wet concrete, and a piece of concrete rebar pierced his back. He suffered a collapsed lung, a shattered elbow, head lacerations and the loss of his brother, who was 24 at the time.
Following the bridge's collapse, the Indiana Occupational Safety and Health Administration cited Gary-based Superior Construction for six violations, including two "willful violations," ruling that concrete pads supporting the bridge were not capable of carrying intended loads, and formwork and shoring of the bridge were not erected according to plan.
For many years, Ketchum said he would drive around the bridge span rather than cross it. But as time went by, he said he started using it again, whether to pick up his wife from work at ArcelorMittal in East Chicago or when traveling to Chicago.
"It just gives you a cold chill thinking that there might be another issue with the same section," he said.
