Bridge project nears completion
May 29 is the planned opening date for Belleair Beach Causeway Bridge
By WAYNE AYERS
| Article published on Wednesday, May 6, 2009 |
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| The high span Belleair Beach Causeway Bridge is on track to open May 29. |
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BELLEAIR BEACH – The planned “drive on” date for the new high level Belleair Beach Causeway Bridge is May 29.
The structure is basically finished, with all structural elements in place, project manager Tony Horrnik said in a May 4 interview.
Still to be done are painting of the exterior walls and middle barrier, installation of expansion joints, construction of the outside posts and, most critically, repair of the area where some concrete chunks, called “spalls,” fell from the underside of the bridge in February.
Success in getting the spall work completed will determine whether the May 29 opening becomes a reality, Horrnik said.
“We’ve hired a world-renowned company specializing in spall repairs to do the work,” Horrnik said. “This is the company FDOT (Florida Department of Transportation) prefers to use when performing delicate repairs.”
The needed repair work is in the process of being approved by the state, he said.
Horrnik emphasized that the opening of the bridge does not mean completion of the project. That will happen in early December. During the remainder of the year, reconstruction of the park, construction and enhancement of the mitigation areas, and construction of the detention areas will be done, along with completion of the smaller relief bridge near Belleair Beach City Hall.
The entire project is now 79 percent complete, with $60.5 million of the $72.2 million budget having been spent, Horrnik said.
The biggest challenge on the project so far was the pouring on land of flat concrete slabs for portions of the bridge surface, then pushing the segments into place on the bridge. This was done for 660 feet of the surface area on each end of the bridge. The process allowed workers to do the job on the ground rather than the bridge where they would have been exposed to “some pretty stiff winds,” Horrnik said.
“This was safer for the workers, offering no opportunity for the scaffolding to fail,” he said. This was the first time a construction process of this type has been used in the United States, Horrnik said. The system has previously been used in Puerto Rico and Barcelona, Spain.
Overall, Horrnik termed the bridge project “a big success,” with the only mishap being the chunks of concrete that fell. The work will be completed well ahead of the original end date in the spring of 2010.
Safety of both the workers and the public has been a main issue during the construction process.
“We have not taken any steps that compromise the safety of the public,” Horrnik said. “We wanted to make sure no one got hurt.”
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Article published on Wednesday, May 6, 2009
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