DEMOLITION
Demolition Day: Watching the Historic 7th Street Bridge Come Down
Posted September 23, 2026 · 7th Street Bridge Project Team · 5 min read
Video Alt text / transcript
Video titled “Meet the Inspector: Demolition Day — 7th Street Bridge Project.” Ray Tunkel, chief inspector for Dewberry, stands near the historic bridge on the day of its demolition. Burned-in captions show Tunkel explaining that the river has been fully protected, every gap in the catcher portion of the trestle has been sealed, and crews are preparing to drop a large wrecking ball onto the bridge. The video then shows the bridge being demolished.
Video titulado “Conozca al Inspector: Día de la Demolición — Proyecto del Puente de la Calle 7.” Ray Tunkel, inspector en jefe de Dewberry, aparece junto al histórico puente el día de su demolición, explicando las medidas de seguridad antes de que caiga la bola de demolición.
This is the Big Day
After months of preparation, crews began the demolition of the historic 7th Street Bridge this week, bringing down the last standing section over the Tuolumne River.
Ray Tunkel, chief inspector with Dewberry, walked us through the final safety checks before the work began. The river has been fully protected, and every gap in the catcher portion of the trestle has been sealed so that no debris falls into the water below. With those protections in place, crews were cleared to move forward.
“This is it. This is the big day… this is gonna be exciting.” — Ray Tunkel, Chief Inspector, Dewberry
What Happens Next
With this section down, crews will begin clearing debris from the site and preparing the foundation work for the new 1,238-foot, 8-span concrete bridge — a structure designed to honor the character of the original 1916 span while meeting today’s safety and flood standards. All four of the bridge’s iconic lion statues are being preserved and will return once construction is complete.
Construction is expected to continue through late 2027 or early 2028. We’ll keep posting updates here as each phase begins.
How Crews Took the Historic Bridge Down
“Demolition Day” is a bit of a misnomer — work on taking down the bridge actually began back in April. Removing a structure like this doesn’t take five months because the demolition itself is slow; it’s because the preparation is extensive. Crews first built a trestle to give access to both sides of the water span, then built a second, central trestle designed specifically to catch the water span as it came down. That let crews quickly clear the sections of bridge sitting over the floodplain — so construction on the new bridge could begin there — while they prepared to bring down the far more difficult section spanning the river itself. What’s being called “Demolition Day” was really the day crews were finally ready to remove those last, crucial water spans.
Taking it apart, piece by piece. The catcher trestle below could only hold so much weight, so the bridge couldn’t simply be pulled down all at once. Excavators fitted with pneumatic hammers first chipped away the concrete deck, and loaders cleared that debris off the trestle. Next, crews broke down the cross member beams connecting the arches and cleared that debris too — all so the final collapse wouldn’t overload the catcher trestle underneath. Once the concrete was stripped from the deck, cross girders, barriers, and arches, all that remained was the bridge’s metal skeleton. Two excavators then lined up in the middle of the span and pulled the two halves of that skeleton apart, bringing down what was left.
What the equipment is actually doing. The excavators aren’t knocking the bridge down in one hit — their pneumatic hammers break the concrete into pieces small enough for loaders to haul away. That process repeats again and again, stripping weight from the bridge’s interior trestle bit by bit, with debris falling onto the catcher platform and cleared out by loaders. Only once most of the concrete — and most of the weight — is gone can the remaining skeleton be safely lowered onto the catcher platform.
The Inspector’s Perspective
Chief Inspector Ray Tunkel has watched several bridges come down over the course of his career — but never one quite like this one. After 110 years, the historic Seventh Street Bridge held on until the very last moment.
“This is the only canticrete bridge that I’ve ever seen demolished. It was really amazing to see that the interior skeleton would not give up. The Lion Bridge that had been standing there over 110 years didn’t want to come down.Once the two trestles were pulled apart from each other by the excavators, there was nothing that could stop the final collapse.” — Ray Tunkel, Chief Inspector, Dewberry
Questions or Comments?
Email Us At construction@pw.stancounty.info
Seventh Street Bridge Project · Stanislaus County | City of Modesto
