DOT: Cost of fixing Madeira bridge to rise

The bridge to Crystal Island, circa 1954, poses ''no immediate threat'' but will cost more to repair later, reports show.

By SHEILA MULLANE ESTRADA

© St. Petersburg Times,
published July 8, 2001

MADEIRA BEACH -- Spend some money now or spend a lot more later, but either way the city must fix its aging bridge to Crystal Island, the City Commission was told Tuesday.

Repairs could cost as much as $400,000, while a new bridge could cost $1-million or more, according to Jeff Siewert of Jones Edmunds & Associates, the engineering firm hired to recommend specific repairs on the bridge.

The two-lane bridge was built in 1954 and has had only minor repairs and "cosmetic" changes since then.

For the past several years, the state Department of Transportation, which examines all bridges in Florida every two years, has warned that the bridge was deteriorating.

A recent DOT inspection rang a much louder alarm, citing "significant undermining and deterioration" requiring "prompt corrective action."

The DOT report said the bridge's west approach slab has a full-depth fracture and significant settling in the westbound lane, probably due to soil loss through the joints in below-water retaining walls at the bridge corners.

"This type of deterioration is common in aging concrete structures, especially in marine environments," Community Services director Mike Maxemow reported to the commission. He stressed that the deterioration poses "no immediate threat to the safety or capacity of the bridge." Maxemow said, however, that if the bridge is left unrepaired for an extended length of time it will become "more expensive to repair and potentially threaten the structure."

The Crystal Island bridge provides the only access to the city and the mainland for several hundred homes on four dredged fingers in Boca Ciega Bay. Daily traffic from hundreds of cars is contributing to the continuing deterioration, according to Siewert.

Siewert's firm was authorized Tuesday to spend up to $43,000 in surveying the extent of the damage to the bridge and recommending repairs.

"We plan to recommend repairs that will extend the life of the bridge 20 or 25 years," Siewert said. He said the actual cost of the repairs is unknown and will be determined by the survey, expected to be completed in about 90 days.

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