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JENNIFER FARRELLThe 40-foot roadway will be removed after contractors find more than three dozen cracks on the Memorial Causeway's south end.
CLEARWATER - For the second time in 18 months, crews are demolishing a massive piece of the new $69.3-million Memorial Causeway bridge.
A 40-foot section of roadway is so riddled with cracks it must be torn down and rebuilt, state officials and the contractor agree.
The discovery of the cracks, revealed in documents obtained this week by the St. Petersburg Times, is the latest in a string of problems with the bridge, which had been planned as a soaring city showpiece.
In December 2002, crews used explosives to drop an 80-foot span on the west side of Clearwater Harbor after it sank a foot and twisted during construction. Then, earlier this year, cracks were discovered in four columns and a footing at the center of the bridge.
Now workers are taking down the 40-foot piece of the roadway where more than three dozen serious cracks were newly discovered this month. Engineers said the span, on the South side of the bridge close to the mainland, was likely damaged in February when 104 feet of roadway fell 7 inches after temporary scaffolding holding it up buckled.
Using high-pressure water-blasting equipment and jackhammers, crews will remove the concrete and steel-reinforced span. Then engineers will study whether the concrete support column below is also cracked.
A vice president for contractor PCL Civil Constructors, Jerry Harder, said Thursday that he feels snakebit.
"I can never recall a circumstance ever that has been remotely close to this. Ever," he said. "It's highly unusual. We have nothing like this in our history."
Tearing down and rebuilding the 40-foot roadway section likely will take until the end of July, Harder said.
PCL suggested demolishing and rebuilding the cracked section, a cost the DOT expects the contractor to cover. The estimated cost of the repair was not available Thursday.
But the company and the state still differ on what to do about the cracked columns near the bridge's center.
The state has demanded that the damaged elements be removed and replaced at PCL's expense, estimated at $25-million. But the contractor has said doing that is not necessary.
On Thursday, the state Department of Transportation gave PCL until July 1 to defend or retract its engineers' claim that the damaged columns and footing can stay. Until then, all work on the columns has halted.
Demolishing and replacing the four columns and the footing could take two years, according to PCL's estimates. If that is done, it could mean the replacement of the two spans supported by the columns, or another 1,362 linear feet of roadway.
And there may be more demolition to follow, according to an engineering consultant overseeing the project for the DOT.
PCL is "going to propose taking out some more" of the bridge near the 40-foot section, said Bill Adams, a senior project engineer with Parsons Brinckerhoff.
PCL found the newest cracks during a study on June 2, Adams said.
On June 4, the contractor finished jacking the damaged span back into place, hoping to salvage it. Minor cracking was detected throughout the section, which engineers for the state and the contractor say can be repaired with epoxy and sealant.
But a later study revealed severe cracking on both sides of the roadway atop a permanent support column. At least one of the cracks measures .03 of an inch, which engineers say shows the structure could be damaged. A crack that wide, they say, likely means that reinforcing steel inside the bridge yielded, or bent.
The good news, according to Adams, is that not much cracking has been detected in concrete where the roadway connects to the column.
"That was real encouraging," he said. "I personally expected to see severe cracking, and there was none."
Engineers are concerned about possible damage to a bearing inside the bridge where the roadway connects to the column, but they have yet to examine it.
"It would have taken the brunt of the force," Adams said.
PCL has finished its plan to rebuild the 40-foot section and will submit it to DOT engineers for approval soon. The contractor must also submit its final proposal to repair the columns.
Harder declined to comment Thursday on the DOT's latest letter, which suggested PCL focus on tearing down the columns, rather than waste time coming up with a less expensive alternative.
No one could say Thursday when the bridge might open.
In Clearwater, frustrated city officials were disappointed with yet another setback.
"What a shame," said Vice Mayor Frank Hibbard.
- Jennifer Farrell can be reached at 445-4160 or farrell@sptimes.com