Upgrading the bridges of the Palm Beaches
For residents, planners and engineers, “The Bridges of North Palm Beach County” has more in common with the rants and screams of daytime television than the scenic romance of a Clint Eastwood-Meryl Streep movie.
Delays. Cost overruns. Confusion about closures. Infighting about structural details. Traffic jams during construction. These are the constant bookends to bridge construction and they reflect the inherent conflicts among being on the water, living next to the water and having to traverse the water.
Three current Northern Palm Beach County projects reveal the tortured process of replacing and rehabilitating bridges: Tequesta Drive, where nearly half of the village residents live on the “other” side; Parker Bridge, a crucial link on busy U.S. 1 but equally important barrier to larger boats on the Intracoastal Waterway; and Little Lake Worth, where some fear a new bridge will increase boat traffic and harm manatees.
Parker Bridge
The rehabilitation of the U.S. 1 drawbridge was originally scheduled for completion in September 2010. Now, it’s looking like Feb. 1, 2011, and there will be a three-day period sometime in December when the bridge will be closed to vehicular traffic completely.
Some of the delay will prove favorable to North Palm Beach residents who like to cross the bridge on foot, explained Chuck Huff, community development director for the village. Instead of a single, narrow sidewalk, the refurbished bridge will have wide walkways on both sides. Also, the village worked with the state Department of Transportation to ensure that the sidewalks connect to existing walkways. Early plans had the sidewalks ending at the edges of the bridge.
Also, the state has worked on North Palm Beach’s concerns about noise. Huff said that engineers reconfigured the roadway grating to both lessen volume and change the sound it makes as tires roll across.
“It’s not that deafening noise you used to hear,” Huff said. “It’s a lot more resident-friendly.”
Expressing his earlier disappointment with the state’s planning, then-Mayor David Norris of North Palm Beach wrote in May 2009 that “the overwhelming issue for the residents, particularly those that (sic) reside in close proximity to the bridge, is NOISE! Noise pollution is both a very real and valid concern that apparently will not be addressed.”
Residents of North Palm Beach have, for decades, resisted a tall fixed-span bridge to replace the Parker drawbridge.
Traffic is now limited to one lane in each direction as workers replace the spans and the mechanics that move them. Sometime around mid-December, the bridge will be closed to vehicles for three days while the last of the heavy-duty work is completed. The rehabilitated bridge – a $9.5 million project – will have a hard barrier between the road and sidewalks, new railings, decorative lighting and landscaping, Huff said.
Little Lake Worth
Last week, a divided Florida Cabinet approved the lease for the bridge’s use of submerged lands, a formality that some concerned residents used unsuccessfully to try to force changes to the project. Their previous appeals to the South Water Management District also failed.
State engineers declared the 45-year-old fixed span “structurally deficient” in 2006 and noted about 40 percent of the understructure had either fallen off or was unsound. There are cracks and rust strain along remaining parts, they noted.
The fixed span along Ocean Drive – also known as Jack Nicklaus Drive – connects 50-acre Little Lake Worth with the northern part of Lake Worth lagoon and is the primary access to Lost Tree Village.
The average clearance is now about 8.5 feet, but the replacement bridge is slated to be 30 feet longer and four feet higher. Some residents fear that increasing the air draft will entice more boats and larger boats, worsen erosion and damage sea grasses and manatees.
A state survey found residents divided on the matter, with 465 in favor of raising the span to about 12 feet and 350 against the plan.
“Our focus is preservation, protection and safety,” said John Thomas of Portage Landing, who asked the Cabinet to keep the navigable height at 8.5 feet. The existing bridge is a barrier to excessive sightseers, partiers, overnight stays and long-term anchorage, said John Torrey of Lost Tree Village.
The impacts will be more acute to the south when 35- to 40-foot oceangoing vessels can utilize Little Lake Worth, said Charles Lee of Florida Audubon Society.
Lee urged the state to build a bridge with 12-plus feet of clearance but to also install some sort of beam or barrier that would limit the height of boat traffic to the existing 8.5 feet. He argued that more and larger boats will harm sea grasses associated with MacArthur State Park and hurt endangered manatees both directly and indirectly.
“This is a game-changer for this estuary,” Lee said.
State officials said that 20- to 28-foot boats are the largest now using Little Lake Worth, which has no natural shoreline and is not considered a congregation area for manatees.
“What limits the vessels is the depth of the water, sometimes less than three feet,” said resident Chris Kartch. He said that even the smallest boats used by the sheriff’s office, Coast Guard, Fish and Wildlife Commission and TowBoat USA cannot pass under the current bridge, while some would be able to access the lake if the bridge goes to 12 feet. He argued that the change would make life safer for boaters and residents.
Joe O’Neill of Captains Landing called efforts to restrict the bridge height “a de facto gate” that some residents wanted to use to deprive the public of access to state waters.
State officials told the Cabinet that the Coast Guard had issued a permit for a navigational height of 12 feet. Any change to that would require starting the permit process all over.
The $3.9 million project was originally supposed to have been finished by Thanksgiving 2010.
Scott Cavendish, senior project engineer for The Corradino Group, said the increase in height had nothing to do with boat traffic. Instead, current engineering standards call for the structure to be at least 12 feet above the salty water, considered an “extremely aggressive” environment. In so doing, the new bridge is expected to last 75 years, instead of the 50-year lifespan for the current structure.
The contractor expects to begin in early January and has found a way to maintain two-way traffic for nearly all of the construction, Cavendish said. The work could wrap up as soon as August 2011 and must be finished by March 2012.
“Really, there’s going to be no impact to the residents,” Cavendish said.
The bridge will have wider traffic lanes, wider sidewalks with full barriers on both sides and decorative railings.
Tequesta Drive Bridge
Yes, the Tequesta Drive bridge spanning the Loxahatchee River is open to traffic.
No, certain details of the bridge have not been finished. And the delay is proving costly, mainly to the Jupiter-based Sheltra & Sons, which contracted to finish the span by late September. The company faces fines of $2,000 a day until the work is done.
State inspectors closed the former, 50-year-old bridge in November 2009, citing safety concerns. Tequesta leaders had already started designing for another bridge; the state’s decision put them into overdrive.
Tequesta village manager Michael Couzzo Jr. said officials tried to speed up a project that typically would have taken one year. Instead, the 150-foot span opened in August, eight months after construction began.
The village, for example, arranged for the contractor to build the spandrels – arches on the upstream and downstream sides of the bridge – off-site. Police and village workers then helped the contractor move the oversized spandrels into position.
Building the spandrels on site would have added at least two months to the effort. Slightly fewer than half of Tequesta’s households are on the west side of the bridge, and all of the town’s business and retail establishments are on the east side of the river. Reaching the eastern areas by alternative routes adds at least 15 minutes to a one-way car trip.
Although there have been intermittent lane closures, Couzzo stressed that the main structural work is finished. The contractor worked on pedestrian barriers and brick pavers last week; still to come is a final paint job, railings and the last inch of asphalt.
“I’m ready for it to be done,” Couzzo said. “But it seems like it’s taking longer than it is.”
And this is no straight-from-the-bargain-bin bridge. Built with $2.4 million in federal stimulus money, the bridge is five feet taller than its predecessor, making it more accommodating for the larger boats of today.
It has stylish arches, fitted with large, bronze emblems featuring the Tequesta seal. Recessed lighting illuminates both the roadway and the sidewalks, plus the sidewalks are a full six feet wide to handle bicycle and pedestrian traffic simultaneously. There are two custom observation decks, where walkers or bicyclists can safely and comfortably view the river. And, like in much of the village, designers paid careful attention to landscaping and details such as brick paver crossings.
“It was specifically designed to reflect the character of Tequesta,” Couzzo said.
The bridges of North Palm Beach County: Boaters want them open. Motorists fume when bridge openings stall them. And waterfront property owners – at least those who don’t own big boats – might prefer they don’t exist. At least until a hurricane threatens. Then bridges are indispensable for all.
