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Highway 168 Bridge Near Bratt Closed After Failed Inspection
July 4, 2024
A North Escambia bridge was abruptly closed Wednesday afternoon after it failed a state inspection.
The Highway 168 bridge over Hobbs Branch, about three-quarters of a mile east of Pine Barren Road near Bratt, is expected to be closed about 90 days for repairs, according to Escambia County officials.
The short wood bridge with a concrete deck was built in 1965.
When NorthEscambia.com photographed the bridge late Wednesday afternoon, it was obvious that at least one wooden support was extremely deteriorated and almost completely broken in two.
Highway 168 and the bridge have served as a vital link between Bratt and Century since the closure of an 81-year-old Highway 4 bridge over Canoe Creek in July 2023. It is currently estimated that the new Highway 4 bridge will reopen in late July. While not the “official” detour, many local residents have been using Highway 168 as a detour for Highway 4.
Now, Bratt Road Bratt to Byrneville is the detour for both Highway 4 and Highway 168. Drivers from Highway 168 will also use Pine Barren Road to the west and Raines Road to the east to reach Bratt Road.
Wednesday night, just hours after the Highway 168 bridge closed, a driver missed a sharp curve on the Bratt Road detour and plunged into a deep ravine.
Average daily traffic in 2021 was 550 vehicles per day on the Highway 168 bridge. However, traffic is likely significantly higher now the closure of the Highway 4 bridge for replacement.
NorthEscambia.com will follow the repair process and post future stories.
Pictured: The Highway 168 bridge over Hobbs Branch late Wednesday afternoon. NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
Comments
8 Responses to “Highway 168 Bridge Near Bratt Closed After Failed Inspection”
These bridges on numbered county roads were constructed by the old State Road Department before the turnover to the counties when FDOT was formed (late 60’s or early 70’s).
They are narrow and worn out roads and are way past functional deficiency for modern travel, and now the have reached structural deficiency.
A lot of money will be needed to upgrade.
But, it’s a free state, right? Yet, nothing seems free. Hmmm.
REGARDING:
“how do we folks on Pine Barren Rd by the school get from here to Flomaton & Century & Flomaton from here???”
Go south on Pine Barren Road to Bratt Road, east on Bratt Road to county road 4, east to Century, North on US 29 for Flomaton.
Or you can go south all the way to 164, left/east on 164 to US 29, Left/north on US 29/ North Century BLVD to Century and Flomaton.
Or you can go north on Pine Barren Road with a number of twists and turns to US 31, right/east on US 31 to Flomaton, right on US 29/113 to go into Century.
Or go to 99 in Bratt, North on 99 up to US 31, right/east on 31 to Flomaton, right on 29/113 to Century.
None is as good as what you have lost for now.
How often are these bridges, or any bridges, being inspected, and why does it take so long to build a new bridge? More than a year to build a bridge across a creek is ridiculous. After hurricane Ivan the interstate bridge over escanbia Bay was repaired in a little over 2 months. The new bridge project took 32 months. That is 12 lanes spanning over 13,000 feet. So tell me, why does it takes more than a year to build a bridge over a creek?
That has been that way for a good minute!! Why did our county employees not see this and already have repairs in place!
So how do we folks on Pine Barren Rd by the school get from here to Flomaton & Century & Flomaton from here???
This bridge along with many others are an accident waiting to happen. These side road bridges have experienced an ever increasing traffic flow because of the elongated down time for the hwy 4 bridge replacement. Even though, inspections are ongoing, at a snails pace, they are doing them.
I can’t imagine how bad some of them are on the Alabama side.
In my opinion this is a great failure on the part of inspectors in the road and bridges in the county and state. This didn’t just happen. The question now is how dangerous are some of the older bridges in the area? Hopefully this is a wake up call to protect the tax paying public.