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In Depth: Most North Escambia Bridges Are Wooden; 50 Need Replacing
September 14, 2011
Think the days of wooden bridges are long gone? Think again. Odds are if you travel an Escambia County road, you will travel over a bridge that has wooden supports under the concrete or asphalt that you see.
Many of Escambia County’s 128 bridges have wooden structures and/or wooden supports, and many are 50 to 70 years old. Eleven are classified as “structurally deficient” and seven are classified as “functionally obsolete”, according to a 2010 report.
Related: Escambia closes Lambert Bridge Road bridge, reduces weight limit on Hanks Road bridge. Read more…
Escambia County says it would take $96.6 million to replace 103 of those bridges — including 50 bridges in North Escambia — within the next 10 years.
The number one bridge on the county’s 2010 wooden substructure bridge priority list is on Fannie Road at Dead Lake, just outside Century. Built in 1960, the 121 foot bridge has a 10 ton weight limit. The estimated price tag to replace the bridge is $1.48 million.
Bridges like the one on Fannie Road are not dangerous, according to county officials, but they are aging and in need of replacement before they become dangerous. While drivers see asphalt on the surface of the bridge, what they don’t see is the wood structure underneath.
Most of Escambia County’s bridges — all but 13 — are inspected at least every two years by the Florida Department of Transportation. The other 13, all bridges less than 20 feet wide, are inspected by a contractor hired by the county.
Other North Escambia wooden substructure bridges that are considered structurally deficient, with date of construction and replacement cost, are:
- Beck’s Lake Road across an unnamed branch, 1968, $640,000
- Pineville Road at Long Hollow Creek, 1968, $610,000
- Tungoil Road at McDavid Creek 1969, $860,000
- Lambert Bridge Road at Pine Barren Creek, 1967, $2.24 million
- Brickyard Road at an unnamed branch, 1960, $640,000
- Bet Raines Road at Jack’s Branch, 1967, $610,000
- Occie Phillips Road at Brushy Creek, 1968, $1 million
The county needs a total of $11.8 million to replace the bridges classified as structurally deficient and an additional $7.3 million to replace the ones that are classified as being functionally obsolete.
Other North Escambia wooden substructure bridges on the county’s priority replacement wish list, with date of construction and replacement cost, are:
- Highway 99A at Boggy Creek, 1969, $770,000
- Highway 97A at Boggy Creek, 1968, $1.48 million
- Highway 164 at Pine Barren Creek, 1958, $2.01 million
- Highway 99A at Little Pine Barren Creek, 1970, $1 million
- Highway 168 at an unnamed branch, 1968, $610,000
- Highway 168 at Reedy Creek, 1968,$730,000
- Highway 168 at Hobbs Branch, 1965, $1 million
- Nokomis Road at Brushy Creek, 1967, $1.33 million
- Molino Road at Alligator Creek, 1959, $860,000
- Schagg Road at Jack’s Branch, 1965, $890,000
- Molino Road at Penasula Creek, 1958, $610,000
- Gibson Road at Alligator Creek, 1959, $1.02 million
- Rigby Road at Beaver Creek Road, 1965, $1 million
- Chestnut Road at unnamed branch, 1967, $740,0000
- Pineville Road at Reedy Branch, 1964, $620,000
- Pine Barren Road at unnamed branch, 1964, $730,000
- McKenzie Road, 1961, $620,000
- Hanks Road at Breastworks Creek, 1968, $730,000
- Highway 99A at Freeman Springs Branch, 1968, $610,000
- Schagg Road at branch of Jack’s Branch, 1965, $620,000
- Sandy Hollow Road at Sandy Hollow Creek, 1959, $730,000
- Sunshine Hill Road at unnamed branch, unknown age, $470,000
- Stacy Road at unnamed branch, unknown age, $490,000
- Pine Top Lane at unnamed branch, unknown age, $480,000
- Chestnut Road at unnamed branch, unknown age, $480,000
- Breastworks Road at Hall’s Branch, unknown age, $490,000
Fourteen of 16 concrete or steel bridges and culverts classified as “priority two” for replacement, are in North Escambia:
- Highway 4 at Alligator Creek, 1949, $1.6 million
- Highway 196 at Jack’s Branch, 1949, $1.35 million
- Highway 4 at Canoe Creek, 1942, $2.59 million
- Highway 99 at Pine Barren Creek, 1955, $2.34 million
- Highway 196 at Penasula Creek, 1949, $1.5 million
- Highway 4 at Reedy Creek, 1942, $1.38 million
- Highway 99 at McDavid Creek, 1951, $2.1 million
- Highway 99 at Little Pine Barren Creek, 1955, $2.1 million
- County Road 4 at Beaver Creek Dam, 1940, $840,000
- Quintette Road at unnamed ditch, 1956, $580,000
- Greenland Road at Pine Barren Creek, 1955, $620,000
- Molino Road at Dry Creek, 1959, $780,000
- Highway 196 at unnamed branch, 1959, $550,000
- Highway 4 at Little Pine Creek, 1942, $640,000
There are additional concrete or steel bridges and culverts in North Escambia on a “priority three” replacement list, including:
- County Road 97 at Jack’s Branch, 1960, $1.96 million
- Highway 196 at Cowdevil Creek, 1961, $680,000
- Highway 168 at unnamed branch, 1967, $980,000
Pictured top and inset: The Highway 4 bridge at Canoe Creek was constructed in 1942. Replacing the bridge would cost the county an estimated $2.59 million. Pictured below: The wood structure of the bridge on Lambert Bridge Road near Walnut Hill. Replacing the bridge would cost an estimated $2.24 million. NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
Comments
20 Responses to “In Depth: Most North Escambia Bridges Are Wooden; 50 Need Replacing”
These are safety issues that need to be addressed by the county commissioners. Let them know what you think! Email all of them!
REGARDING:
“Like what for instance”
The early boost in development of integrated circuits was tied to our ICBM development and NASA’s need for small, lightweight, low power demand, durable electronics. Others picked up the pace after they were developed enough to be economically feasible for consumer products. The computer you are using right now owes its existence to that development.
I notice that NASA developed the bar code to help keep track of inventory. That means every time you pass groceries over the scanner at the checkout counter, your time savings are tied to NASA. You save a lot of time and have a good record of what you bought and how much you paid. (and let us not forget the scanner and register are using those integrated circuits)
The same development which yielded rockets for space exploration yielded rockets for DirecTV, for weather satellites, for GPS. The lives saved by weather watch should have SOME value to you. We are still expanding the usage of GPS but it saves much money by keeping folks from getting lost and allows us to know exactly where a person needing medical attention is through use of cell phones. (which also use integrated circuits, I might add)
One of my personal favorites was the invention of ground penetrating radar developed to map the surface of Venus through that extremely dense atmosphere but when pointed at Earth on the way showed submarines 100 meters below the surface of the oceans, lost cities nobody had guessed. It can be used to find buried bodies, phone and pipelines. Its use should expand in the future.
The problem with doing a cost/benefit analysis is that the benefits will continue to roll in from now on, shrinking the ratio daily.
David listing a few
The county just got a 90 million dollar wind fall from winning the beach lease/tax lawsuit. There’s your money! Lets hope they do not hire more people and grow the county government. Call your county comissioner and ask them what there plans are for the money!
@ oversight:
Go here to see some of what the space program has brought us:
http://www.ssc.nasa.gov/public/visitors/vt13.html
NASA didn’t give us Teflon or Velcro
Don’t forget about Tang,,,,,another great gift from the space program…….As far as the bridges go, the question you have to ask yourself is ” Are you willing to pay more taxes to get them fixed?”………
Space the final frontier………
Let’s ask our Saviour David Morgan. I don’t know how in the world Escambia County has functioned all of these years without him. We will wait on his answer. I have noticed all of the photo ops he is in now, and radio spots he is in now that the election is getting near. He will save us and find money to save the bridges.
We spend way too much on ball parks and sports complex faciliities. Maybe if we cut some of the social programs we are saddled with we could build better roads. The state and feds pay all these young women to have babies through medicare/medicaid….cut the welfare state and you’ll see better infastructure.
“We have benefited greatly over the years from the spin-offs of the space program and other basic research.” – David Hue Green
Like what for instance Teflon and Velcro? These items private industry would have most likely invented on its own without spending countless billions of taxpayer dollars while playing around in space. The cost – benefits ratio for NASA and the space program is way out of proportion for the few spin off inventions that have been produced.
“I read somewhere”
-Brian C. Abrams
Well, that’s good enough for me. Must be true if you read it somewhere.
:-/
There is nothing wrong with wooden bridges.
In fact, I read somewhere that properly constructed wooden bridges are cheaper to build, cheaper to maintain and last longer if properly maintained.
Than steel and/or concrete bridges.
The sky is not falling.
Forget about the bridges, let’s just build another ballpark or sprots complex……
REGARDING:
“we sent a rocket to Jupiter at the cost of $5billion – - – I think that $5 billion would have went a long way HERE ON EARTH”
It turns out that the Jovian workers were on strike so all of that money was spent here on Earth, paid to Earthlings. The product didn’t stay here on Earth but the information it will send back will be ours. Will it help us here in this county? I doubt it, but it’s hard to say where basic research will lead. We have benefited greatly over the years from the spin-offs of the space program and other basic research.
If I know anything about politicians, though, even if the money weren’t spent on exploring the final frontier, little of it would have wound up in Escambia County.
Nor should it. County roads are the responsibility of the county government. County commissioners used to be called road commissioners because that was understood to be their primary function: making sure the roads were there and in good shape.
There is no end to good things money could be spent on. There IS an end to how much money people have to provide the government to spend. Worrying about wooden supports would make sense if wood could not do the job. Obviously it can for a time, maybe even longer.
I get to wondering if they changed their criteria to make bridges which would be considered acceptable before unacceptable now. I don’t want to risk any bridges collapsing but I wonder.
David for local government
handling local problems
and federal government
handling national problems
Anyone that seriously thinks these bridges are all going to be replaced anytime soon is living in a dream world. They will be replaced and/or repaired one at a time, years apart as they near collapse. There is no money to replace ALL of them at once. After all, we have better things to do with that road repair money like build boondoggle baseball stadiums in flood zones.
I would really prefer to see us spend the money to replace these bridges instead of building a more convenient visitation center for our inmates. 4+ Million so that the can “video conference”.. Screw that, you’re in jail for a reason.
Of course until we have a County Commission that will take on Sheriff High Horse, Nothing will change around here…
Several weeks ago we sent a rocket to Jupiter at the cost of $5billion and it will take it 5 yrs to get there, I think that $5 billion would have went a long way HERE ON EARTH– I wonder are there bridges on Jupiter? and if so are they of any good to us?
I lived by the double bridges on W. HWY 4 for over 23 yrs. In that time I can only remember repairs being done on those bridges two times, however i often was waken by the sounds of people wrecking on them. They need to be replaced with wider and straighter bridges!
This reminds me of that show on the Discovery Channel about America’s failing infrastructure!
Thank you for publishing an interesting report on our infrastructure.
Pay ‘em now or pay ‘em even more latter. I guess it’s going to take a bridge failure that injures or kills someone and for the county to get sued before the BOCC will get off of its duff and start these much needed replacements. I’m sure if we take a look into the budget we could find some pork project downtown like hundred of thousands of dollars to build a monument or millions to the Sanger Theater when our basic transportation infrastructure is crumbling.
When we were worrying about rebuilding Iraq, we should have been worrying about problems here, at home. I would like to know where the money for these requirments will appear from. Thanks Mr Cheney.