The extent of the problems in the Memorial Causeway footings, which extend under the water, is not yet known.
By JENNIFER FARRELL
Published February 28, 2004
CLEARWATER - More cracks have been discovered in the new Memorial Causeway Bridge, this time in concrete footings at the base of the already-cracked support columns.
Officials with the state Department of Transportation confirmed Friday that more cracks, revealed by heavy rains this week, have developed in the face of the footings, which extend under water.
It is unclear how many footings are cracked or to what extent.
"We haven't got them mapped yet," said DOT construction engineer Jim Moulton Jr.
The cracks, another setback for the trouble-plagued bridge, could be a major obstacle because the footings are under water, making them difficult to inspect and more difficult to repair, said Lawrence Kahn, a civil engineering professor at Georgia Tech contacted by the St. Petersburg Times.
"A crack in a footing is a big deal," he said. "The big thing to be is patient and thoughtful and not jump to conclusions and not let emotions lead what is essentially an engineering problem. But that is extremely difficult to do. Even for engineers."
William Nickas, the DOT's top structures engineer, sounded surprised Friday when a Times reporter questioned him about the cracks during a conference call with other agency officials.
"I didn't know we had cracks in the footings," he said. "I have no comment."
Nickas, who will oversee and approve any repairs proposed by bridge builder PCL Civil Constructors, said the DOT must be cautious in evaluating the damage.
"I'm not going to give an opinion on that until I see the numbers," he said.
Last week, Nickas announced that four columns supporting the tallest section of the bridge were cracked, one more seriously than the others.
PCL hired a team of engineers to assess the damage and a final report is expected next week. The contractor also is studying ways to fix a 104-foot section of the bridge's roadway that fell 7 inches overnight this month when scaffolding holding it in place buckled.
PCL officials could not be reached Friday for comment.
Earlier this week, PCL vice president Jerry Harder predicted the cracked columns could be sealed with epoxy, citing preliminary engineering studies. He did not mention problems with the footings.
On Friday, Moulton and Nickas said the DOT had raised concerns more than once with PCL over its performance.
In a letter this month, Moulton suggested the company had jeopardized its chances of working for the DOT in the future.
"The recent events have raised more serious concerns in these regards, and PCL should expect to receive a separate letter from the state highway engineer, directed to your firm's continuing capacity to perform work on Florida Department of Transportation projects," he wrote.
In March 2003, a DOT engineer raised questions about PCL's handling of three separate jobs:
In Sarasota, work was stopped on the John Ringling Causeway Bridge after cracks were detected in the roadway. Also, the spans were misaligned and a pier was cast improperly.
In Clearwater, crews used explosives to bring down an 80-foot section of the Memorial Causeway Bridge span after it fell a foot and twisted in December 2002. The debris was hauled away and the section was rebuilt.
In South Florida, crews dropped a section of concrete bridge at the Fort Lauderdale Hollywood International Airport. Afterward, PCL performed repairs before DOT could finish a review of the plan.
That record led Nickas to take a remarkable step when a section of the road bed dropped 7 inches early this month.
He demanded that PCL submit a sealed envelope containing a letter in which the company would take responsibility for any problems caused by PCL's recommended repairs. DOT officials were concerned that the repair could pull other parts of the bridge out of line. After Nickas' demand, PCL dropped that repair plan.
Nickas has also demanded that PCL provide a warranty on the bridge, which officials said should have a lifespan of 75 years. Nickas has put PCL on notice that DOT might require the company to tear down and replace damaged parts of the bridge.
After problems were discovered last year on the Ringling Causeway in Sarasota, PCL agreed to up its warranty on that bridge from five to 10 years, bumper to bumper, so to speak, according to Nickas. DOT also demanded and received a corporate warranty, pledging PCL's ability to do business in Florida for at least 15 years.
The Memorial Causeway project currently has no warranty.
After DOT officials told PCL last year they were "very concerned" about problems with the Sarasota, Clearwater and Fort Lauderdale projects, PCL responded that the Sarasota project had a "number of very unique and perhaps first-ever details."
"On future projects, we will attempt to avoid cutting-edge designs and opt for more traditional and common concepts," PCL's Harder wrote.
The design for the Clearwater bridge presents some complex engineering challenges, say DOT officials and experts contacted by the Times. For example, the 350-foot span between the two pairs of center columns is unusually long, according to Nickas. The bridge's curved design also adds a degree of difficulty to the project.
Now a preliminary review has shown that a change in design, meant to save time and money, led to a change in how the bridge was built. And that change in technique contributed to problems with the $69.3-million bridge, according to Nickas.
DOT officials signed off on the revised design, which resulted in roughly $1.3-million savings, a sum split evenly between PCL and DOT.
But the new building plans scrapped several temporary supports designed to keep the road deck stable during construction. The supports would have prevented the span from teetering too much and putting undue stress on the columns. Had PCL used the temporary supports during construction, the columns would have been less likely to crack, Nickas said.
Ironically, repair costs likely will far outstrip savings from the redesign, according to Moulton.
Harder has said PCL will deliver a complete bridge and will cover any needed repairs at no extra cost to taxpayers.
Meanwhile, city officials are growing increasingly frustrated on the sidelines, lamenting more problems with the state project once planned as a city showpiece.
Mayor Brian Aungst said the city wants assurances from DOT that the bridge will be safe.
The city had hoped to open the bridge to traffic next month, and officials remained optimistic even after the first setback in 2002. That section of bridge was replaced and the project was on schedule.
Now no one can say when the bridge will open.
"We're just kind of pulling our hair out," Aungst said. "Things had just been going so well."
