(Radio Iowa) – The planned implosion of the Mississippi River Bridge at Lansing has been pushed back from this Thursday to Friday. D-O-T Engineer Clayton Burke says the schedule required a change.  “We had some coordination issues between some different stakeholders, so it just didn’t work out to get that Thursday, but Friday was a much better day for everybody,” he says. The plan is to use explosives to bring down the metal portions of the bridge now that the concrete deck has been removed. Burke says weather is a big issue, but there is a 90-95 percent chance the implosion will happen Friday.

“The only thing that would that would stop it is if that rain comes in Thursday night and it freezes hard on the electronics out on the bridge that are controlling the explosives. If if that becomes an issue, then they would delay it a day until they can get it figured out and get things unfrozen and ready for demolition,” Burke says. The wind can’t be too heavy for things to work as planned.”The last thing they do is they cut the wind bracing on the bottom of the bridge, which significantly reduces its capacity to resist wind. So they do that when they know it’s not going to be windy and then after they cut that they have to drop it as soon as they can,” he says. “So that’s a big concern is. As soon as they cut that wind bracing it’s got to happen within the next couple days.”

Burke says the car ferry service which transports vehicles across the river will be closed between Thursday night and Monday morning to allow for the implosion.