Route 8 bridge comes down in controlled blast

A major piece of Akron history came crashing down Sunday morning, with a boom heard and felt across parts of the city.

The Ohio Department of Transportation and the Ruhlin-Great Lakes State Route 8 Joint Venture used a controlled explosive demolition around 8 a.m. Sunday (Sept. 27), to bring down two sections of the now-closed 1953 State Route 8 bridge over the Cuyahoga River Valley.

But for some Akron residents, the blast came as a surprise.

Social media posts began appearing shortly after the demolition from people asking what had exploded or reporting that the boom had shaken their homes. Residents reported hearing or feeling it from neighborhoods including Goodyear Heights, Firestone Park, Kenmore and Akron’s west side. Some expressed frustration that they had not known beforehand that an explosive demolition was planned.

The concern about advance notice actually surfaced before Sunday. In an Akron Reddit discussion in August about the bridge project, one resident said they hoped the specific date and time of the eventual implosion would be made public, saying they could not imagine suddenly hearing and feeling an explosion while living near the construction.

ODOT did have an official viewing area for Sunday’s demolition and streamed the blast on its District 4 Facebook page. Project officials estimated the explosion would reach about 142 decibels.

The demolition itself was carefully planned. According to information provided to the Beacon Journal, crews used 128 explosive charges containing a combined 100 pounds of explosives. The charges detonated over less than half a second, bringing down 648 feet of the bridge’s steel arch structure.

More than 5.2 million pounds of steel (the equivalent of roughly 200 truckloads) came down during the blast.

ODOT says Route 8 in both directions between Perkins Street and Tallmadge Avenue was closed during the demolition, along with several local streets within a 1,000-foot safety perimeter.

The old bridge opened in 1953 and was being removed as part of the $158 million State Route 8 bridge replacement project.

ODOT is replacing the single bridge with two separate structures: one for northbound traffic and another for southbound traffic. The new southbound bridge opened in December 2025 and is temporarily carrying traffic in both directions.

Crews will now spend the coming weeks cleaning up debris from the demolition. That work is expected to continue through November.

Construction of several piers for the new northbound bridge will continue through the winter and spring. Beam installation is expected to begin in late spring 2027, with the new northbound bridge scheduled to open by fall 2028.

The entire project is expected to be completed by the end of 2028.