JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The Florida Department of Transportation is scheduled to begin a three-year, $22.7 million project Tuesday to repaint and repair the Mathews Bridge, which connects Arlington and downtown Jacksonville over the St. Johns River.
The project involves cleaning and repainting structural steel surfaces along the 1.4 mile-long span. It includes structural steel repairs, corrosion protection, new ladders, platforms and railings and rehabilitating the joints, which allow bridge segments to expand and contract.
Recommended Videos
More than 7,000 tons of structural steel will be fully cleaned and repainted. The color of the bridge will not change. Work will also be done at pier foundations at the water level.
The project should be finished in the summer of 2014, FDOT officials said. The contract specifies 720 days to complete the contract and allows the FDOT to add extra time for weather delays, holidays, special events and unforeseen construction circumstances.
Full bridge closures, along with single and directional lane closings, will regularly occur, but they will happen at night and on weekends, officials said. The bridge and lane closings will not affect commuter and rush-hour traffic. Transportation officials said the bridge and lane closures are necessary to safely repaint and repair the bridge. Directional closings mean that both lanes in the same direction are closed to traffic while lanes in the opposite direction are open.
The allowable times for full bridge closures are Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday nights from 7 p.m. to 6 a.m.; Wednesday nights from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m.; from 7 p.m. on Friday to 6 a.m. on Sunday; and from 9 p.m. on Sunday to 6 a.m. on Monday. Single and directional lane closings are allowed on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday nights from 7 p.m. to 6 a.m., and on Sunday and Wednesday nights from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m.
The detour route for traffic heading eastbound on the Mathews Bridge is Union Street to the Hart Bridge to Atlantic Boulevard to University Boulevard to the Arlington Expressway. The detour route for traffic going westbound on the Mathews Bridge is the Arlington Expressway to University Boulevard to Atlantic Boulevard to the Hart Bridge, and then to State Street toward downtown Jacksonville.
No construction will be allowed on major holidays and during selected special events, such as Jacksonville Jaguars football game days, the annual Gator Bowl, the Florida-Georgia football game weekend and the Greater Jacksonville Agricultural Fair.
Periodic closings of the Mathews Bridge won't be a bother to everyone.
"I go to work downtown every day, and to be honest with you, I get paid by the hour," one driver said.
For others, it could take some adjustments.
"It's going to be worse on the Hart Bridge because everybody's going to be leaving the Mathews to go the Hart Bridge. So that's going to be crazy," one driver said.
The Mathews Bridge opened to traffic on April 15, 1953, and cost $11 million to build. The four-lane bridge is 7,736 feet long and 58 feet wide. The vertical clearance (the point from the bottom of the bridge to the mean sea level mark) is 149.5 feet. It carries about 66,500 vehicles a day in both directions.
"It's a perfectly functional bridge, but we are doing a little more than repainting it," FDOT spokesman Michael Goldman said. "We are doing structural steel repairs. We will be replacing the railings. We'll be working at the water level."
The bridge was last repainted in 1982. It had paint touch-up work in 1995, 2002 and 2007. The steel grating on the bridge was replaced with a concrete riding surface in 2007 at a cost of $12.9 million.