Jacksonville.com

January 17, 2005

Bridge of Lions' makeover set
Transportation planners vow it'll keep its history as it grows into future.

By KEN LEWIS
The Times-Union

ST. AUGUSTINE -- After decades of debate, a $77 million project to rehabilitate the historic Bridge of Lions while keeping it on the National Register of Historic Places will begin on Valentine's Day.

The Florida Department of Transportation is hosting informational meetings Tuesday and Wednesday in City Hall to provide information on the project before the construction equipment arrives a week after the Super Bowl.

The plan is to make the bridge nearly identical to the original one built in 1927, only with lanes widened to 11 feet each and barriers installed between pedestrians and vehicles. The rehabilitated bridge will still feature two lanes and a drawbridge for boats, and it will incorporate parts of the original bridge.

A two-lane temporary bridge will be built north of the current one to allow traffic flow as the original bridge is dismantled and given improvements designed to last 50 to 75 years. Also, a new park will be built at the east end of the bridge, in accordance with the original plans.

The project will be a "shining example of historic preservation in action," said Laurie Sanderson, a spokeswoman for URS Construction Services, the engineering firm that will oversee the project. "It will be the same bridge. It will simply live a lot longer now."

Residents of the Ancient City are extremely protective of the bridge, which incorporates Florida A1A and stretches over the Matanzas River. Though prone to congestion as tall boats float under the draw span, the two-lane construction is beloved for its elegance, history and its views of attractions such as the Castillo de San Marcos.

The fight to preserve it dates back to the 1970s, when the Transportation Department proposed replacing it with a wider, bigger bridge that would allow boat traffic to pass below without stopping cars.

"It was going to be a monster," said Janis Williams, an activist with the Save Our Bridge Committee. "We put up a fierce resistance."

Now approaching 30 years of bridge activism, Williams said the Transportation Department was not ready for the level of dissent in St. Augustine. Then in the 1980s, President Reagan cut funding for the Federal Highway Administration, which translated into a span of time with no change for the Bridge of Lions. As community involvement increased, the bridge was named one of the 11 most endangered historic sites in the nation in the early 1990s.

But not everyone favored the plan to rehabilitate, which is not expected to alleviate the traffic jams that pile up on each side of the bridge.

As president of Citizens for a Safe New Bridge, John Daniels sought a modernized design. The current one is "substandard and functionally obsolete," he said.

"What you see now is what we're going to get," Daniels said.

His group formed about a year before an important public hearing in June 1999, when the Transportation Department announced four options for the new bridge. Daniels and his allies pushed for wider lanes, but they couldn't get political support.

"This has been referred to as a third-rail issue," Daniels said. "No one wants to get involved, no one wants to touch it."

Now $68.2 million in federal funds and $8.6 million in state funds are committed to the project, which will be built by Swedish company Tidewater Skanska. The company created much of Sweden's roads and infrastructure during the early 20th century before going international. Other current projects in the United States include a $90 million bridge to be built in Virginia, according to the company.

The temporary bridge should take a year and a half to build and be done in the middle of 2006, Sanderson said. When traffic shifts onto the temporary bridge, work will begin on the rehabilitation.