Construction Equipment Guide
470 Maryland Drive
Fort Washington, PA 19034
800-523-2200
Wed April 04, 2001 - Southeast Edition
Superior Construction Co. is building bridge replacements along U.S.17 in Duval and Nassau Counties in Central Florida, which will make driving an adventure in a 12-mile area for most, if not all of 2001. Seven new bridges will be built — actually, six bridges and a box culvert — and their predecessors demolished. Work is set to begin November 6, with traffic shifts being implemented approximately three weeks afterward.
Bridges to be replaced are those across Inconstantion Creek, the Nassau River, Crews Creek, Nassau Creek, Lofton Creek and McQueen Swamp. The box culvert will be built across Lofton Branch. Total cost for the project is $11.2 million.
“The largest bridge is the one over the Nassau River, with an overall length of 700 feet, or 194 meters,” said Bobby Naik, a project manager with Jacksonville-based Superior Construction. “It’s got drill-shaft construction over the Nassau River and the overall project involves approximately 12,000 feet of pre-stressed concrete piling.”
The new bridge over Crews Creek will be 238 ft. (72.6 m), with the Inconstantion and Nassau Creek replacements being 172 ft. (52.5 m) each. Lofton Creek’s new bridge will have a length of 129 ft. (39.3 m) and McQueen Swamp’s will be 123 ft. (37.5 m) long. Lofton Branch gets a new four-barrel box culvert at 46 ft. (14 m) long.
Some of the bridges being replaced date back to the 1930s and 40s; most bridges of this type have a life expectancy of 50-plus years, according to Sharon Griffiths, PE, a construction project manager for the Florida Department of Transportation. “It has come up on our bridge inspection report that it’s time for replacement [of these bridges],” she said. “Bridges are inspected every two years, until their rating is such that they need to be inspected more often.”
All the new bridges will have two lanes, as did the ones they are replacing. “All will be built with a concrete pile structure, with the exception of the Nassau River Bridge, which is drill-shaft construction-building the pile in the ground as it’s poured into place. No pounding,” Griffiths said.
Once traffic shifts begin, half of each of the old bridges will be demolished, resulting in one lane of construction. Temporary traffic signals will be placed along each location.
“It’s really pretty simple — a basic project,” said Naik.
Working with Superior Construction and FDOT on the project is Parsons Transportation, a construction consulting and engineering inspection firm in Jacksonville.