This Isn’t Good
The Local Puppy Trainer is reporting that Pensacola Bay Bridge needs replacement, ‘structurally deficient’.
Known locally as the Three-mile Bridge, it is the link between Pensacola and Gulf Breeze, and an important point on US 98. It has survived multiple hurricanes that have regularly wiped out the much shorter I-10 bridge to the north.
This is going to be a mess because a new bridge will require two cities and two counties to agree on the route, and then the state and Federal governments to agree on the funding. Any project this big is going to attract all of the unsavory types in the area and waste years.
They could just use the route of the bridge that the current bridge replaced, and turn the current bridge into a couple of fishing piers, but that would be too easy.
2 comments
Thanks for that catch, Bryan. I missed it. Wasn’t here then, but long-time locals still remember the chaos following a closure of the Pensacola Bay bridge in 1989, after a barge struck it. The way the story goes, it was closed for “about six months” and residents from the beach and Gulf Breeze had to make a 25- or 30-mile detour east on 98 to 87, then north toward Milton, then west toward Pensacola, and finally south to town. According to this web site it wasn’t closed as long as that; more like six weeks, but still a heck of an inconvenience.
Stories of past disasters remembered do tend to grow more dramatic over time.
Actually, that closure was the start of the Garcon Point Bridge push, to cut the time in half, although it is still a major pain if you are going to the government offices.
They should just flip again, but they won’t because that would be too easy and make too much sense.
It would be nice if they made the new bridge wider than the current one and add some traffic sensors so people know when there is a problem.
They have a much improved fender system to protect the current bridge, but this time they could design the fenders with the bridge and install some lighting.
Of course, it will be a problem getting approval from Escambia County – with the county commissioners going through their annual criminal trials. 😈