Nov. 7, 2004
USA TODAY
Photo: A gap in the bridge over Escambia Bay, FL swallows a tractor-trailer rig on Sept. 16. Hurricane Ivan cut the bridge in two earlier into the day.
PENSACOLA, Fla. (AP) — Traffic on an 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 say.
Thousands of motorists use the bridge each 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.
Photographs of the bridge with a truck dangling over one of the missing sections became symbolic of Ivan's destruction across the northern Gulf Coast. Divers found the body of truck driver Roberto Molina Alvarado of Toppenish, Wash., in the bay where his cab landed.
The plan is to open only one lane of traffic on each of the two spans, Florida Department of Transportation spokesman Tommie Speights said.
That would leave one lane unused in each direction to prevent the bridge from becoming over stressed. Emergency vehicles, however, would be able to use the spare lanes.
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 nearby U.S. 98 and then more than two years to complete construction.
An earlier plan to temporarily restore the Interstate 10 bridge to two lanes in each direction by mid-December has been abandoned.
It would take too much material and create excessive loads on the bridge's structure, Speights said. "Things have changed," he said. "I don't think we're going to gain any lanes."
http://www.usatoday.com/weather/hurricane/2004-11-07-Ivan-Interstate_x.htm