Steve wrote:us89 wrote:AlabamaDave wrote:I assume the 281 bridge to Gulf Breeze via the east side of Escambia Bay must be okay, because my daughter commutes from West Pensacola to GB for work and made it (took over 1-1/2 hours). I ain't no road engineer, but isn't there something that can be done to reinforce these bridges in hurricane prone areas? Seems like this happens with every significant hurricane.
The US 98 bridge got hit by a barge. Not much you can do to prepare for that.
Yeah, and a crane (allegedly) fell on top of the broken section which was a different spot than where the barge hit it. The old bridge was destroyed in Ivan, and the super old bridge was a fishing pier for almost the entire length until it too got destroyed. The new bridge which they have been building the last couple years was much much higher (e.g. the I-10 Twin Span over Lake Pontchartrain) so that the wave action couldn't destroy it. Same for the 3 mile bridge. I guess the state or state's engineering company should have pulled the floating docks and barges farther away from the bridge. They are moored, but there's literally nothing else they can hit in the Sound all the way to the 281/Garcon Point Bridge or the little peninsula hamlet of 4 or 5 houses right off Bayshore Road.
At one time,one barge hit the new bridge,one got wedged under the Garcon Point Bridge(so it was shut down) and the I-10 bridge was shut down because another barge was headed that way. I've also heard that one hit the bridge leading to NAS.