Aging South Florida bridges need costly repairs as money dries up

Up until the year it was set to be replaced, the Ocean Avenue Bridge in Lantana was repeatedly getting patched up.

"It was getting worse," said Barry Meve, Palm Beach County's bridge superintendent. "It had been plenty ready for replacement because of structural problems."

At 62 years old, the drawbridge over the Intracoastal Waterway was showing its age, needing constant attention and expensive repairs, which included shoring up deteriorating pilings, filling a hole in the deck and propping up beams.

But it lingered on the county's replacement list. Design and permitting would take a couple of years and the bridge's hefty replacement cost ? $32 million ?held up construction on its replacement until last year.

The Ocean Avenue span is not unusual. Hundreds of South Florida bridges need replacing, but often linger on "to do" lists until money becomes available. And in recent years, that money is harder to come by.

Authorities caution that the bridges aren't about to collapse, but more time and money is poured into maintaining and repairing them ? especially the case if they're older bridges. Most bridges are designed to last 50 years, but many must last much longer than that through maintenance and extensive repairs rather than costly replacements.

"When they get older, we have to pay more attention to them," said Anh Ton, Broward County's director of highway and bridge maintenance. "We do have to spend more time to maintain them. There's a lot more wear and tear on them."

In Broward County, there are 100 bridges older than 50. Of those, 29 have been reconstructed to extend their lives. Palm Beach County has 89 bridges older than 50, of which 54 have been rebuilt.

A bridge's age doesn't necessarily indicate how healthy it is, said John Danielsen, the Florida Department of Transportation's district engineer for structures and facilities.

But age sheds light on bridges that need some work:

Of Broward County's 14 bridges listed as structurally deficient, 11 have passed the 50-year mark. There are 104 bridges in the county that are listed as functionally obsolete or don't meet current traffic standards, and 45 of those are older than 50.

Palm Beach County has 79 bridges listed as obsolete, of which 26 are 50 or older. The county has only four bridges with structural problems, and three are being replaced. The youngest was built in 1965.

One of those replacement bridges is Flagler Memorial Bridge. Construction on the $94.2 million replacement is going on now just south of the old bridge.

Built in 1938, the bridge was recently closed for seven days for emergency repairs not long after construction on the replacement bridge began. The bridge remains open while its replacement is being built, but it has restrictions: Nothing exceeding 5 tons, or much larger than an average pick-up truck, is allowed to cross.

Maintaining the crumbling old bridge was a constant chore for the Florida Department of Transportation. Flagler lingered on the state's deficient bridge list since the 1990s even after three major rehabilitation projects.

But budget constraints and other priorities kept it from being replaced until now. Luckily, funding to replace state bridges such as the Flagler bridge has remained stable, Danielsen said.

"I have not seen a reduction in funding for bridge repair or replacement in recent years," he wrote in an email. "Our budget for bridge repair has remained consistent and meets our demands to keep our bridges safe."

But Broward and Palm Beach county bridge officials said money for replacement bridges has been an issue for them.

"It's getting a lot harder to get state and federal money," Ton said. "There are several [Broward] bridges on our wish list that we would like to replace."

That's the balancing act transportation officials navigate when maintaining older bridges. As they get older, bridges require more care and repair. Immediate maintenance costs are often cheaper than replacing a bridge, but over the long run can become more expensive as repairs must be done more frequently.

Source: http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/palm-beach/fl-old-bridges-repair-replace-20130210,0,1562498.story?track=rss

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