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Mon November 08, 2004 - Southeast Edition
PENSACOLA, FL (AP) Traffic on a hurricane-damaged Interstate 10 bridge in the Florida Panhandle may be limited to one lane each way for years until a new one can be built, transportation officials said.
An earlier plan to temporarily restore the bridge to two lanes in each direction by mid-December has been abandoned, Florida Department of Transportation spokesman Tommie Speights said Nov. 4.
It would take too much material and create excessive loads on the bridge’s structure, he said.
“Things have changed,” Speights said. “I don’t think we’re going to gain any lanes.”
Thousands of motorists use the bridge every day, whether traveling between California and Florida’s east coast or crossing between Pensacola on the west side of Escambia Bay and suburban communities on the east side in the Milton area.
“This is not good news for tourism, or for our economic base, or for people who commute,” said Milton Mayor Guy Thompson. “It will curtail a lot of people who would usually hop into a car and go out to eat or go shopping.”
Hurricane Ivan’s storm surge ripped out huge sections of the bridge on Sept. 16, closing it until the westbound span was repaired and reopened to traffic going both ways on Oct. 5.
A joint venture between Gilbert Southern of Peachtree, GA, and Massman Construction Co. of Kansas City, MO, will continue installing temporary metal bridge sections on the more heavily damaged eastbound span.
The plan now, however, is to open only one lane of traffic on each of the two spans, Speights said.
That would leave one lane unused in each direction to prevent the bridge from becoming over stressed.
Officials are seeking federal dollars for a replacement bridge but they have neither a timetable nor a cost estimate, Speights said.
Speights said a design-build contract is being considered to expedite the project. It took six months to put together a build-design team for a similar bridge on U.S. 98 and then more than two years to complete construction.