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Replacement Of Dawson Road Bridge Nearing Completion, And The Cost Is Rising
September 17, 2023
Less than 10 months after construction began, work is nearing completion on a bridge replacement project just south of Century, and the cost is rising.
Dawson Road closed in early February for the replacement of the county-owned bridge over Pritchett Mill Creek.
The cost was originally set at $1.7 million, but once work started, needed changes were discovered. A $34,103 CEI (construction, engineering and inspection) change order was already approved due to an additional length of piling, and a $38,248.05 change order is pending for county commission approval next Thursday due to additional pilings needed to construct the bridge.
The new total construction cost stands at $2,142,203. The Florida Department of Transportation is picking up 75% of the cost, while Escambia County has a 25% match commitment.
The previous county-owned wooden-support bridge was constructed in 1965. It is being replaced with a 76-foot long concrete structure. The project also includes replacement of about 270 feet of roadway, curb and gutter, guardrail improvements and ditch grading. The bridge work was being coordinated with utility companies due two a 3-inch water main and a 3/4 inch Town of Century gas main.
The project is expected to be completed by the end of the year.
For more photos of the old bridge before demolition, click or tap here.
Pictured top: The Dawson Road bridge over Pritchell Mill Creek as seen Wednesday, September 13. Pictured below: The original 1965 structure prior to demolition. NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
Comments
7 Responses to “Replacement Of Dawson Road Bridge Nearing Completion, And The Cost Is Rising”
@M in Bratt. I was only referring to the added cost of the support pilings, not the overall cost escalation. There is no mention of the $370K in other added costs, so I didn’t address that.
@Ten Mile road; Check your math, $442,000 is substantially more than a 4.2% up charge.
There are six? residences on Dawson that technically don’t need the bridge to get to Hwy 28. So they build a $2,142,203 bridge. That’s $357,033.84 per residence. Seems about right….
2 comments—It’s a 4.2% cost increase and on a $1.7M construction project which is not that bad. As far as the pile length and quantity go, this is an Engineering bust. A proper geotechnical report would have given the Engineer the soil bearing capacity and therefore both the quantity and driven length of each pile required to support the structure and the traffic load. Not a Contractor caused change to the contract—unless he was savvy enough to identify the Engineer’s error and bring it to the County’s attention.
When was a traffic density study done on this stretch of roadway and bridge? Prior to closing the bridge, how many vehicles traveled this road in a day, one or two? On the otherhand, County Road 164 is in need safety improvements.
This seems typical of DOT projects. I would assume that this contract was awarded by competitive bids. This contractor low ball bid it and took it away from any other responsible bidders in contention for the job. Now they are raising the price based on “unforseen” expenses. I would assume that they have built bridges before and have engineers on their staff, so how can there be surprise expenses? The DOT and the county should hold this contractor to their bid price. Unless,,,,,,,somebodys are looking for a brown bag delivery to share the bounty of the cost over runs.
Every time I read about a bridge replacement I am reminded of the causeway bridge over Lake Pontchartrain in Louisiana. Each northbound span is typically 28’ in width by 84’ length. They keep spares ready to replace any which might be damaged in a matter of hours. They built shorter bridges they could reach by barge all over south Louisiana with these sections . Probably too hard to get them in, but sure would be nice. Don’t know how much they cost, but over 24 miles cost $30 million or so.
Oh well. Anything is better than nothing.