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Treasure Island's span is in new hands

The firms that built the Treasure Island Causeway's approach bridges are tapped to redo the drawbridge - a delicate, precise project.

By JADE JACKSON LLOYD
Published January 16, 2005

TREASURE ISLAND - Reconstructing the 66-year-old Treasure Island Causeway has been, and will continue to be, an exercise in teamwork. Luckily for those involved, the work will be done by the same team.

On Tuesday night, city commissioners awarded the nearly $48-million contracts to engineering consultant firm E.C. Driver & Associates and contractor Johnson Brothers-Obayashi - the same companies that joined forces last year to successfully build the causeway's east and west fixed-span lead bridges.

The hardest part of the project, however, still looms: the drawbridge.

As high-profile problems plague the Memorial Causeway in Clearwater and the Crosstown Expressway in Tampa, those on this project expect increased scrutiny from the public. But with award-winning pedigrees and resumes dating back decades, they say they're prepared to handle it.

A Thursday visit to the Tampa office of Jim Phillips, vice president of E.C. Driver & Associates and project manager, revealed walls of registrations and awards, a college diploma and photos of the firm's crown jewel bridges.

The Southeast 17th Street Causeway, a $74-million project completed in March 2001 in Fort Lauderdale, won the firm several design and engineering awards and writeups in construction magazines.

E.C. Driver helped the city secure funding for the project, Phillips said, after the ravages of time and saltwater cracked the concrete beams and rusted the steel bars.

The total project is estimated to cost $65-million. The two approach bridges were built for about $7.8-million, $5.2-million coming from a state transportation grant. The city received $50-million from the federal government to complete the new drawbridge. Because the bridge is owned by the city, city commissioners had sole discretion on who would build it - until the feds got involved.

Ironically, his company's help with the contract could have spurred its loss of it, Phillips said. The federal government required the construction engineering inspection contract to be put out for bid again. The firm and three others made presentations to the city in December.

What set his company apart from the competition? Experience with movable bridges, which are "quite more complex" than their fixed-span cousins, Phillips said.

A normal bridge requires construction of a pier, a superstructure and a driving surface. A bascule - the French word for seesaw - incorporates mechanical and electrical aspects as well, "so you're really building a machine as opposed to just building a bridge," Phillips said. Precision matters, down to one-thousandths of an inch, he said.

For instance, the bascules will be built in the up position, on either side of the water.

"When they hit (down), they'll be within 1 inch apart," he said. "If they touch, you've got a big problem."

Not as big as other local structures have endured.

Last April, a section of the unfinished elevated portion of the Lee Roy Selmon Crosstown Expressway collapsed.

Then in May, the Florida Department of Transportation ordered the demolition and replacement of four cracked columns and one cracked footing on the new Memorial Causeway bridge in Clearwater, the largest forced rebuilding in DOT history.

Though they acknowledge that anything can happen, those connected to this project say they don't foresee dealing with those issues. Small issues are part of the business, Phillips said.

"In Detroit, if you're building a car, you build 10 before you get a prototype," he said. "The bridge itself is the first one of its kind to be built. You don't have the luxury (to) build a few, test them and crash them somewhere."

John Meagher, project manager with contracting company Johnson Brothers-Obayashi, said the challenges the team faced in building the lead bridges highlighted an uncommon camaraderie among designer, contractor and owner.

When small problems cropped up, they tackled them together.

"It seems like we're able to sit down and talk and come up with a solution that fits everyone," he said Friday. "It's kind of rare for contractors to sit down with the designer and the owner and come up with solutions everyone's happy with. Everybody seemed willing to be flexible and give when they had to."

Johnson Brothers' portfolio dates back to 1929 and includes work in Central Florida dating to 1987, said Joseph Michels, the company's senior vice president of business development. The company has been recognized for its work at Universal Studios' Islands of Adventure in Orlando.

E.C. Driver and Johnson Brothers have worked together roughly five times, from Louisiana to South Florida, Phillips said. Most recently, they completed a span in Venice, Fla., together.

The city decided to replace the span just in time.

The drawbridge registers a 2 on the state DOT's 100-point sufficiency scale, which grades how well bridges withstand inspection. To give some context, a rating of 50 means the bridge's owner should consider replacing it. A 20 means replace it yesterday.

Don Hambidge, the city's public works director, said that number will continue to droop until reconstruction is complete. Hambidge, with the city five years, is the project manager for the bridge.

"That rating, until we can demolish and rebuild, it will only go down," Hambidge said. "It will never go up."

Traffic has been limited to vehicles weighing less than 4 tons since early February. A police unit sits just west of the bridge 24 hours a day to enforce the mandate.

The lead bridges will likely rank 100 on DOT's scale, Hambidge said. Cleanup and light poles, the last tasks, should be done within weeks or even days, Phillips said.

Though construction of the bridge hinges on a permit by the Coast Guard, demolition will begin in nearly two weeks, reducing the four lanes of traffic to two.

For 15 months, residents and tourists will have to deal with heavier traffic flow before detouring completely for three months, Phillips said. The bridge will reopen to two lanes for 15 more months until it's finished.

Hambidge said the hassles will be worth it in the end.

"The increase of elevation, the fewer openings, just the aesthetics of the bridge, I think it's going to be a wonderful opening to the city and a great gateway," he said. "I just can't wait to get started on it."

[Last modified January 16, 2005, 00:33:22]