Philadelphia Daily News from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania • Page 5

THE PHILADELPHIA DAILY NEWS PAGE 5 SATURDAY. APRIL 11. 1992 EinWDg spam) DdDsedi 34th St. bridge drops 3 inches after its underpinnings fail I raffia bridge was falling onto tracks used by freight trains, leading Amtrak to close the freight tracks for a couple of hours. Amtrak's passenger trains, which run from 30th Street Station to Har-risburg and Pittsburgh, were allowed to continue running beneath the bridge because the tracks they use were not affected, she said.

As of last night, she said, both freight and passenger trains were using the tracks beneath the bridge. The Streets Department has asked the state Public Utility Commission to investigate whether Amtrak should pay for part of the bridge repair. But Banks said she doubted Amtrak would pay. "It's not railroad property. We don't believe that we're responsible for funding maintenance and repairs to bridges that support automobile traffic," Banks said.

by Anthony S. Twyman Daily News Staff Writer A section of the 34th Street bridge connecting the city's Mantua section to the Philadelphia Zoo suddenly dropped three inches yesterday afternoon, forcing the city to close it Officials from the Streets Department said the section gave way after some supports had failed. No one was hurt, and officials said the incident appeared to be caused by the bridge's age and normal wear and tear. "We were worried that any vehicle going across that bridge, any vibration, would cause that bridge to give," Patrick Starr, a spokesman for the Streets Department said, explaining why the bridge was closed. Officials project that the bridge, located near the southeast corner of had been scheduled for later this year.

The entire reconstruction project, he said, is expected to take a little over two years. The city had planned to keep one lane open during the first year of reconstruction, Lutz said, but yesterday's collapse has led to a change of plans. The bridge will be closed completely during the first phase. Once the work is done, Lutz said, the bridge, which now can support vehicles of no more than four tons, will be able to carry vehicles weighing up to 40 tons. Renee Banks, an Amtrak spokeswoman, said concrete from the the Zoo and a block from Girard Avenue in West Philadelphia, may have to be closed for repairs at least a year.

The closing could spell major traffic headaches for motorists, many of whom use the bridge to get in and out of the Mantua and University City areas of West Philadelphia. Jack Lutz, chief bridge design engineer for the Streets Department, said traffic will be diverted to 40th Street during reconstruction. Motorists then will be able to take Parrish Street west or Brown Street east. Lutz said the section of the bridge that gave way was built in the 1920s. A three-stage, S10 million overhaul PoolbDndlseir ffiiire dtoses bridge If-- 1 Sam Kinison: Former minister Kinison hilled! in car crash Associated Press I NEEDLES.

Calif. Comedian Sam Kinison was killed in a car crash last night, his publicist said. Kinison died instantly in the crash on VS. Highway 95 near the desert community of Needles, about 250 miles east of Los Angeles, said his publicist, Florence Troutman. His wife, Malika, was seriously injured and taken to Needles Desert Community Hospital, Troutman said.

A man who answered the phone at the hospital last night hung up. They were driving in Kinison's sports car and were followed by a van carrying the comedian's brother and manager, Bill Kinison, and two friends, Ms. Troutman said. Troutman didn't know many details about the accident, but said a pickup truck carrying two men hit Kinison's car head-on. "There were empty beer cans strewn over the highway.

They did not come from Sam's car," she said. A California Highway Patrol dispatcher had no immediate information about the accident Kinison was to perform last night at Riverside Resort Hotel and Casino in Laughlin, said Roy Jernigan, the hotel's entertainment director. Kinison, the rotund, self-proclaimed rock 'n' roll comedian, created a character who bellowed and screamed his way through such topics as Christ's last words, starvation in Ethiopia and the evils of women, marriage and sex. He also starred in "Charlie Hoover" on Fox Broadcasting Co. Kinison was once a Pentacostal minister, but, hurting from a fresh divorce, decided to drop his ministry, leave his native Peoria, 111., and go to Los Angeles.

Kinison, 38, and his wife were married last Sunday morning in Las Vegas and had just returned from their honeymoon in Hawaii, Troutman said. The comedian had a history of drug and alcohol problems, but said in recent years that he had given up drugs and cut down on alcohol. I- by Ramona Smith and Jo O'Dowd Daily News Staff Writers The soaring four-alarm fire that forced a two-hour shutdown of the Walt Whitman Bridge yesterday may add months or years to the planned environmental cleanup at the old Publicker Industries distill-' ery, the Environmental Protection Agency said. But explosive and flammable chemicals already had been removed from the South Philadelphia site in an earlier stage of the cleanup, disarming what the EPA once described as a mammoth time bomb. The bridge was closed until 7 a.m.

yesterday, because authorities feared heavy smoke could block mo- -torists' vision or expose them to hazardous fumes. However, no hazardous fumes were detected, the EPA said. The Coast Guard found no hazardous materials in the water running into the Delaware River from the fire' scene. The fire marshal's office is still investigating the cause of the 4:37 a.m. blaze that destroyed four wooden buildings at the old distillery, which is now a federal "Superfund" hazardous waste cleanup site.

The federal government has spent $16 million so far to clean up the sprawling 37-acre complex of tanks, buildings and 300 miles of underground piping off Delaware Avenue near Packer, just north of the bridge. Most of the money went for an emergency cleanup in the late 1980s, after a spectacular blaze punctuated by exploding drums rocked the complex in June 1987. During that cleanup, workers removed about 850,000 gallons of highly flammable alcohol, miscellaneous chemicals and oil contaminated with PCBs, which are sus- Smoke from fire at former distillery rises into sky near Walt Whitman Bridge 3. ASSOCIATED PRESS the hazards at Publicker were so notorious that Gov. Casey used the site as a backdrop in 1987 when he announced plans for a new state toxic-cleanup program, similar to the federal Superfund program.

At the height of yesterday's blaze, flames were visible for several miles both in South Jersey and Philadelphia. The Delaware River Port Author- ity closed the Walt Whitman Bridge in both directions. Motorists were detoured to the Ben Franklin, Betsy Ross and Commodore Barry bridges. pected cancer-causing agents. Now the site still faces a massive cleanup of contaminated soil and groundwater as part of a long-range cleanup that is still in the planning stages.

More immediately, asbestos was to be stripped from the old buildings this summer. The fire, however, destroyed four buildings, each about 80 by 100 feet and between three and five stories high, before it was brought under control at 6:43 a.m., Fire Department spokesman John Quinn said. "Removing asbestos from a building that has now caved in is obvi ously going to be more problematic," EPA spokesman David Sternberg said. Harold Yates, also of the EPA, said yesterday's blaze may add months or years to the cleanup at the distillery, which once made Old Hickory bourbon and industrial alcohol. The site has been plagued with misfortunes since 1986, when two demolition workers employed by Cuyahoga Wrecking Co.

were killed by explosions touched off by a workman's torch. Cuyahoga had just bought the property from Publicker. Before the emergency cleanup,.