Rebuild Set on Florida Span Hit by ‘Ivan the Terrible’ Storm
The Florida Dept. of Transportation April 20 awarded a design-build contract to a joint venture of Parsons Brinckerhoff Quade & Douglas, New York City; Tidewater Skanska, Virginia Beach, Va.; and Flatiron Construction, Longmont, Colo. Ardaman & Associates, Orlando, will provide geotechnical support. The team will begin drilling 60 test pilings for the $242-million Interstate 10 bridge replacement in June, says John Pohle, design-build manager for the project. Foundation construction is set to follow in August.
Design specifications will hopefully prevent a reoccurrence of the damage in which multiple bridge sections were washed off their pilings. Clearing the bridge-shore interface of the tidal zone is the other major design improvement, according to Pohle. The new bridges, each 3.1 miles long, will each be 100 ft longer on their eastern sides to prevent approaches from being washed away as they were during Ivan. The added length will allow storm surge to flow under the spans. The new precast segmental concrete bridge will have a minimum 65-ft clearance over the shipping channel.