SkyDance Bridge Suffers Structural Problems

It's been just more than two years since the fancy SkyDance Bridge opened over I-40, but the nearly $6 million pedestrian bridge is already having problems.

“There's always been a little hump, but it hadn't been this big. It was like a little speed bump,” cyclist Trey Holmes said.

But now, it's grown into much more.

“A speed mountain,” he said.

It's no little thing, but its looks are deceiving.

“I thought it would be easier to get over than it was,” Holmes said. “It's a little higher than it looks.”

It will sneak up on you, especially if you are on a bike.

“Some of them [will] come by and they'll hit and down they'll go,” one pedestrian said.

The buckles seem to be growing about as quickly as cyclists are pedaling across the bridge.

“I walk it every day and since yesterday it looks like it's probably raised maybe two inches. Since yesterday,” one walker said.

So News 9 set out to walk the Skydance bridge for ourselves and found several areas of slight buckling in the wood, and by the time we reached the end of the bridge, it was evident what people are talking about – even from Bob Mills SkyNews 9.

City crews were doing routine inspections and discovered the large bump. The wood buckled because there wasn't enough room left for expansion.

“They just didn't allow for as much expansion as we got, but they can certainly prepare for that as we go forward,” City of Oklahoma City spokeswoman Shannon Cox said.

The city does not have a dollar estimate yet on repairs, but officials said they are only going to repair this particular part of the bridge and will get to other problem areas as they arise.

Just like the repair work, one board at a time, is exactly how people who walk this bridge said the damage started.

“It's a ripple effect from one end to the other,” one resident said.

Repairs are expected to begin soon.