by Caroline Gabsewics
Staff Writer
Motorists planning to travel on the Fuller Warren Bridge may run into a delay this afternoon.
At 1:31 p.m., four piers of the old Fuller Warren Bridge will be destroyed by explosives. The current Fuller Warren Bridge will be closed during that time and traffic will be re-routed. The Acosta and Main Street Bridges will remain open.
Florida Department of Transportation spokesman Mike Goldman said ramps to Interstate-95 in that section will close at 1:15 p.m., and at 1:20 p.m. traffic will be stopped on both the north and southbound lanes of I-95.
“We do this to protect the motorists,” he said. “We don’t want people to be startled while they are driving when the blasts go off.”
Goldman warns that traffic might build up. Shortly after the blast, the lanes and ramps will reopen and traffic will resume as normal, he said.
There are 6-8 feet of the bridge above the water and 20 feet below that will be demolished. Woven wire and rubber blasting mats will be used to contain debris and to protect the current bridge.
But protecting the bridge and motorists are not the only concerns.
“There is an endangered species window that began at the beginning of December and ends in the beginning of February,” said Goldman. “The first of five blasts are Wednesday (today) and the rest will be done by the end of January.”
This is the only blast scheduled for this month. Observers will search for manatees within 900 feet of the blasting area. Goldman said one will observe from the air in a helicopter, one in a boat, three on the new Fuller Warren Bridge and one on land. They will begin looking for the manatees an hour before.
Goldman said if a manatee is spotted, they will halt the demolition for 30 minutes.
“We will have to wait for it to naturally swim out of the area,” he said. “So this can cause traffic to be backed up even longer.
“If something swims into the zone, most likely, we will let cars go across the bridge and then close it again once they are out of the area.”
Goldman said besides the manatees, dolphins and turtles will also be protected.
“Normally they are not here this time of year, but we have had some warmer temperatures recently,” he said.
Goldman added that marine traffic has also been notified of the blasting taking place today.
After the blasts, debris will be picked up and the area will be surveyed.
Construction for the current Fuller Warren Bridge began in August 1996 and it opened in phases during 2002.
The first part of the old Fuller Warren Bridge demolition occurred this past July, but Goldman said permitting and legal issues had to be worked out before the rest of the bridge came down. The first section of the bridge came down mechanically using a crane, but the rest will be completed with explosives.
There have been efforts to try and save the old Fuller Warren Bridge, but Goldman said FDOT hasn’t found any reasons to maintain it.