Monday morning boom!

There's nothing quite like an explosion to get the week off to a good start. With that in mind, Houstonist would like to direct you to KTRK's video of the demolition of the Montrose bridge over the Southwest Freeway on Friday night. Although the video didn't play all that smoothly on our computer, the effect still came through. Explosions are fun!

For those of you who wonder how much dynamite it would take to destroy a freeway bridge, KTRK found the answer: about 90 pounds. (For the record, we do not endorse blowing up bridges.) For those of you confused about the whole thing, the old Montrose bridge (which was actually the Montrose Boulevard roadway with the ground dug out from underneath it) was demolished this weekend so work could be finished on the new arched bridge that had been built above it. Once the new bridge is finished, Montrose traffic will cross the freeway on twin arched spans that match the bridges already in place at Graustark, Mandell, Dunlavy, Woodhead and Hazard.

Though the official word has always been that the $71 million Southwest Freeway/Spur 529 reconstruction will be finished in early 2007, the project's website seems to indicate it might be a few months earlier. Still, we're not holding our breath.