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HomeMy WebLinkAboutBridge_Courier_11/18/2009Bridge demolition -Contractor pr©mises Tequesta that near bridge wiU be open- In August KIT BlitlAW kit.br~dsYta~v@scripps.com Rick Sheltra,.vice president of Sheltraand-Son Can~r'uction Co. Inc. toil a packed'~questa. Village Council rvt~m hl<on~i~ay that the Tequesta idg~ mil be demol- ished aver Thanksgiving and the two halves will be. connected by a new bridge by August... The Tequesta Bridge spans the North Fork of the €.©xahatchee River, essentially dividing the western part of Tequesta, which inclutles'all of Tequesta Country Club, from the eastern part of the village. Because of the deterioration of the bridge, the Village Council (., c;~a i ~r ~! 1181 v 4 et far after Than 'vin s ks ~ ~ voted earlier this year to demolish it and build a new bridge. The vil- lage received $3 million from fed- eral stimulus r~ney but the bid by Sheltra and Son, oi' Indianto~vn,, carne in at $2.4 million. The Flor- ida Department of Transporta- tion will oversee the construction because of the fedepal funding. "We are starting to bring iri the cranes, with the actual demolition in about two weeks," Sheltra said. "Although we'll try to finish before the231-days, becauso of the incen- tives the village is offering, we think it will still be August before we are finished." Mo Mabrouk, with. the Florida Department of Transp©rtation, will be the liaison between the public and the construction firm for the project, "This bridge means everything to this village," 1VIabrouk said. "The project; helps out people and ,gives them jobs; and a lot of people, from~the village as well,as FDOT, AIM Engineering and oth- ers pushed this along to _be. able to start the project before the first of the year." But the jobs weren't on the mind of Sue Hamm, who isaboardmem- ber at Carriage. House on Tequesta Drive, a condgminium community next to Tequesta Bridge. "We are so close to the bridge, and are worried about possible damage to our seawall, the swim- ming pool (that overlooks the river) and our condominium," Hamm said. "The noise will be phenomenal, and we have a lot of .older people who are year-round residents and can't go anywhere else during the construction, Also, there are peo- ple who rent their condos during the season, and they won't be able to do this with the construction." Hamm said the condominium residents will have to take a circuitous route from their homes to go east to any of the stores in Tequesta. It is estimated that the round trip, now less than two miles, will be about 14 miles, from condominium to stores on U.S:1. Sheltra said the demolition stage of the project would take about a month, and then the pil- ings would be driven into the bed- rock for the new bridge. The pile driving will take place from. Dec. 22 to March 9. "We'll be working six days a week, l0 hours a day on this proj- ect," Sheltra told those at the pre- construction meeting. . A survey will be done prior to construction of any'structures, within 400 feet of the project, and` another one done when the bridge is completed, Mabrouk said. `°If there is any damage to these properties, the contractor is responsible for repairingthedam- age," Mabrouk said. t'~R•:?~l'.~:~~yy~'t'i~.:t' '~:..~:y[-.~t.~.X'~: a~":'~2 i?:, .:SAC c~~.~,'*. .i"':~„. ~~~."l~fY. .;t~^ica::~f~a,.r...*~»ti_ Y$~+~'~ ~ ~7li i~~ "~ ~,~: • ~ ffi •