Photos Show Just How Close A Century Bridge May Be To Collapse. And It’s Going To Take $300K To Replace It.

February 4, 2020

Photos obtained by NorthEscambia.com show the dangerous conditions that led to the emergency closure of a bridge on Freedom Road in Century last week.

Several pilings under the wooden bridge are no longer properly supporting the structure, and some of the pilings are split or have extreme deterioration.

Monday night, the Century Town Council voted to move forward with replacing the bridge. The first step will be for town staff to determine how to pay the estimated $300,000 price tag. The council voted for the replacement over an estimated $75,000 to $100,000 for repairs that might last a decade, according to Interim City Manager Vernon Prather.

The council may use Local Option Sales Tax revenue for the new bridge, but a final determination of a funding option will come at un upcoming meeting.

Last week, Mott McDonald engineers conducted a limited inspection of the bridge and found the following problems:

  • A backwall has deflected toward the water, pushing piles toward the water and causing them to rotate, split and no longer bear weight.
  • One bridge piling has a split at the top of the pile, but it is providing some support.
  • A second pile has been pushed completely out and no longer supports the bridge.
  • A third pile has split, and only half the pile is providing support.
  • A fourth pile has deterioration with only a three-inch diameter section remaining about six feet below the bridge. The outer pile section has broken.
  • There is soil loss behind a backwall.
  • There is a large void underneath the roadway on the east side the bridge

“We cannot predict when the…backwall lateral loads will complete fail…causing the bridge the collapse,” engineer Bart Hendricks wrote in his report. “We also cannot predict when the roadway over the void on the southeast corner will collapse”

The age of the bridge was not provided to the engineer, but he determined the timber pilings may be at or beyond the typical life of 30 years. “A better long-term financial decision may be to replace this structure rather than perform repairs,” Hendricks wrote.

Mott McDonald engineers also recommended that the town perform bridge inspections for all bridges that are not inspected by the Florida Department of Transportation. Those inspections are required every two years for longer bridges by the Federal Highway Administration.

Comments

14 Responses to “Photos Show Just How Close A Century Bridge May Be To Collapse. And It’s Going To Take $300K To Replace It.”

  1. CD on February 5th, 2020 8:59 pm

    When the lottery first came to Florida, the big selling point was that it would help pay for infrastructure and public schools. What happened to all the lottery money that was supposed to help with these things?

  2. Phillip on February 5th, 2020 11:03 am

    @Doug,
    Where’s the appropriations bill for that bridge? Or anything? Mike hasn’t filed a single appropriations bill in the two years he’s been elected (this time, to that seat,, we all know he’s become a career politician who aspires to be even more of a politician).
    Show me SOMETHING. You always jump in here giving him praise, but he can’t even help the district he represents.

  3. And so it begins on February 4th, 2020 8:07 pm

    The meeting troll Underhill is referring to about Hill was January 24, 2019 and the priorities had already been vetted and voted on in the sunshine prior to that meeting.Joy Jones herself said the second list was ill conceived and would affect the previous list. Commissioner Barry was gracious but Underhill was trying to convince the lowest common denominator not paying attention. This isn’t about Century bridges anyway.

  4. Willowbrook on February 4th, 2020 7:25 pm

    Resident, sorry, just trying to combat fake news about how the bill got paid with actual FACTS.

    I reject blind allegiance to the strategy that gave us this trump nightmare.

  5. chris on February 4th, 2020 2:26 pm

    ” how to pay the estimated $300,000 price tag.” Seems like Century spends a majority of their time figuring out how to pay for things. With little revenue stream coming in, it’s just a matter of time before they go belly up. Just let the County take over the town and kick out the current admin.

  6. Resident on February 4th, 2020 12:22 pm

    Willowbrook, etc and all the comments bashing the county….it’s not the county’s issue. It’s Century bridge and they did not inspect it for years and let it fall apart.

  7. Willowbrook on February 4th, 2020 11:56 am

    Willowbrook Lake was deeded the county and acts as a retention area to control floodwaters and a sediment filter, keeping downstream waterways cleaner.

    NOT a private lake.

  8. Bob West on February 4th, 2020 11:30 am

    Gosh, imagine how much good could have been done with the $2M that was pissed away replacing a resident caused failed private dam on private property for their exclusive use (Willowbrook). $1.2M was L.O.S.T. Seems not that long ago that I was at a Dist. 5 Town Hall meeting and jokingly chided Barry that we were lucky there were no legitimate public projects, in Dist. 5, that the $2M would have been better spent on. But, at least, his buddy got his private lake back…..

  9. Judy on February 4th, 2020 9:54 am

    Sounds like Century REALLY needs to clean house and get some leaders in place that cares about all these things, and are not “good ole boys”

  10. My2Cents on February 4th, 2020 9:30 am

    We need to focus more on our infrastructure before people get seriously hurt and/or die.

  11. retired on February 4th, 2020 8:54 am

    @SAM

    Remember you live in Century, your tax money goes for airplane tickets, cameras,
    water pads, personal loans ETC. , not for the citizens safety!

  12. Douglas Underhill on February 4th, 2020 8:33 am

    Sam,
    Your taxes are siphoned off for the Crony Projects like OLF8 and VT MAE. Last year Representative Mike Hill tried to work with us at the BOCC to bring home state funding to help with the ~90 derelict bridges in Escambia County. The BOCC refused to make it a priority because we would have to divert some local funding to bridges. Politics is more important to some people than infrastructure and public safety.

  13. AWhorff on February 4th, 2020 7:20 am

    Wow! Thats around the corner from my house. Been taking that road alot while teaching my teens to drive, for months now. Scary

  14. sam on February 4th, 2020 7:12 am

    thought we payed taxes for these sort of things.

Written by William Reynolds · Filed Under News