Can you possibly REPLACE stone by steel in a bridge without destroying it and building it back again? Doesn't sound plausible to me... In the real world, when

Can you possibly REPLACE stone by steel in a bridge without destroying it and building it back again? Doesn't sound plausible to me... In the real world, when Engineer 2 needs a steel bridge to replace the stone one, he asks Engineer 1. That would be the condition required for Engineer 1 to build her fancy bridge. If market research had been done properly beforehand, of course.