Push continues for Cline Avenue Bridge collapse memorial on 42nd anniversary of tragedy (2024)

EAST CHICAGO— Fourteen men reported for work on April 15, 1982 to build a bridge on one of the Region's busiest highways and never returned home.

Michael Charles Beird, Billy Ray Bricker, Harold K. Carlson Jr., John H. Chester, Harold L. Elkins, Roy F. Gourley, Michael C. Horn, Robert Arnold Kaser, Frederic G. Krieg Sr., Robert E. Pegg, James Kevin Riley, Roberto Rubio, Gerald E. Wedding and Calvin Whitehead died when the Cline Avenue Bridge collapsed.

The collapse of the100-foot-tall highway bridge overRiley Road and the Indiana Harbor Ship Canal in East Chicago remains one of the deadliest construction accidents in state history.

An ongoing effort to get a memorial installed to commemorate the dead has been gaining ground.

Steelworker Terry Steagall, a United Steelworkers union activist who was working that fateful day at nearby Inland Steel, has been leading the charge to get a memorial in place to remember the dead. He's been distributing posters outlining the project.

"It's one of the most tragic construction accidents in Indiana history," he said. "With so many people dying in one accident, it's important to recognize the sacrifice they made to make that bridge possible."

He recently described his efforts to the East Chicago City Council, whose public safety committee led by councilwoman Monica Gonzalez is now reviewing the memorial proposal.

Lake County Commissioner Mike Repay also will introduce a resolution this week noting the anniversary and supporting recognition.

"Terry Steagall approached me about it. I remember it but not well as I was a little kid," he said. "He lamented the fact there is no memorial anywhere for the people who lost their lives. I was surprised by that as well. So I'm bringing a resolution to the board of commissioners to at least put the issue out there and lend our support."

The fallen workers deserve a memorial, Repay said.

"I'm surprised it hasn't been done," he said. "It's a pretty straightforward, inexpensive thing we could do to honor some folks who were residents and neighbors."

The construction workers slain in the bridge collapse ranged from 23 to 63 years old and hailed from across Northwest Indiana and neighboring Lansing, on the other side of the Indiana-Illinois state line.

They were building a $13.5 million bridge extension as part of the broader $261 million state highway project to extend Cline Avenue through East Chicago to near the Illinois state line. They were pouring concrete for a ramp at the Riley Road-Cline Avenue interchange when the bridge gave way.

Twelve died on the spot when three sections of the Cline Avenue Bridge buckled and fell after one of the piers blew out, creating a domino effect that sent it toppling down. They were crushed under falling slabs of concrete, steel girders and rubble.

Another 18 workers were hurt. Many were pinned under wreckage that had to be removed with cranes. Two died of their injuries later at the nearby St. Catherine's Hospital.

About 75 construction workers were on or under the 1.6-mile-long concrete and steel bridge over the industrial canal when it came crashing down at about10:40 a.m. on April 15, 1982. The impact was so forceful when about 444 feet of the bridge plummeted to the canal that eyewitnesses compared it to an earthquake.

A couple workers scrambled to the deck of a section of the bridge that was "by then a free-standing island 60 feet in the air, without a means of escape," according to a federal report prepared for then-Congressman Adam Benjamin Jr. It fell in about 5 to 10 minutes while rescue workers looked on helplessly.

One worker died while buried in the concrete.

"I was working in the steel mill in Plant 1. We didn't have cell phones and internet at the time," he said. "Sirens were going off. It was just mayhem at the site. Inland Steel and LTV sent over cranes and bulldozers to move debris and rescue people."

The workers were building a bridge that took drivers tosteel mills, refineries and casinos along the Lake Michigan shoreline. It was closed in 2009 and demolished in 2013 after it was deemed corrosion had deteriorated it to the point of no longer being structurally sound and was replaced by a toll bridge that opened in 2021.

Steagall seeks to install a workers memorial at the northwest corner of Block and Michigan avenues just off the Cline Avenue exit. He's sought support from the city, unions, contractors, businesses and the community.

It also could commemorate the 393 steelworkers who died in accidents at the nearby Inland Steel mill, as well as police and firefighters.

"We're trying to make this a big-picture memorial for workers, police and firemen who died," he said. "It's going to take time."

Steagall attends the Memorial Day Massacre commemoration on Chicago's Southeast Side every year, which he said served as an inspiration for the memorial.

"They respect and honor those guys, including three from USW Local 1010, who were shot and killed on that Memorial Day strike in 1937," he said. "It's an emotional ceremony. We have to retain those memories of the past and recognize the sacrifice made by working people. We have to make sure we don't forget those people."