At leave five spans of the recently built Pensacola Bay Bridge damaged by construction barges during Hurricane Sally on Sept. 15 will require complete reconstruction, according to a preliminary Florida Dept. of Transportation assessment. Repair plans for several other spans that sustained what the agency calls “varying degrees of damage” are still being determined, with no estimate as to how long the bridge will be out of service or when work will start.
Damage to the year-old, three-mile-long Pensacola Bay crossing occurred when Hurricane Sally’s storm-driven waves unmoored several construction barges being used by Skanska USA to construct a parallel bridge and demolish a decommissioned 60-year-old structure. One barge reportedly carrying a crane completely severed the existing bridge while impact from another vessel left an extensive gash in another section.