A job well done

A job well done

The force with which a southbound truck struck the Niles-Vienna Road overpass on state Route 11 Tuesday morning was tremendous.

It brought almost instantaneous death to the driver, Raymond Fr. Cross Jr. of Mercer, Pa., and reverberated through a wide area in a number of ways.

It also brought out the best in emergency workers who answered the call quickly and efficiently — and in ODOT engineers, road crews and private contractors who responded in subsequent days.

Public employees are often the brunt of criticism — as has been the case even on this page — but it is necessary to stop from time to time and recognize a job well done.

Area police, fire and EMT units responded immediately. HazMat and Dominion East Ohio crews addressed a natural gas leak from a severed transmission line under the bridge.

Ohio Department of Transportation crews quickly closed off entrances to a five-mile section of the highway and erected signs, safety cones and detours to keep traffic flowing smoothly and safely around the closed highway.

Phase two

Finally, with amazing efficiency, ODOT began work on assessing the extensive damage to the bridge and putting together a short-term and long-term plan.

In the short term, ODOT coordinated emergency demolition work to remove low-hanging and loose debris from the underside of the bridge so that standard clearance was restored and traffic could be resumed as early as today. That level of efficiency is important for the convenience of motorists who regularly use the road. But it is even more important for the safety of the driving public, especially during the holidays, when travelers are unfamiliar with regular routes, much less detours.

It will take months to repair girders and replace the bridge surface, and there will be some level of inconvenience to the driving public during that time. But for now, everyone involved in the response to the tragic pre-holiday accident can spend this weekend accepting the public’s gratitude for a job well done.