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| title = Dismanteling the Skyway Bridge| (September 25 1992)
| title = Dismantling the Skyway Bridge| (September 25 1992)
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As bridge disassembly work progressed,.<ref name="Interview">{{cite web
As bridge disassembly work progressed,.<ref name="Interview">{{cite web

Revision as of 06:54, 10 March 2009

The New Sunshine Skyway Bridge
Coordinates27°37′30″N 82°39′31″W / 27.625°N 82.6586°W / 27.625; -82.6586
Carries4 general purpose lanes (I-275 and US 19)
CrossesTampa Bay
Localesouth of St. Petersburg and north of Terra Ceia, Florida
Official nameThe Bob Graham Sunshine Skyway Bridge
Maintained byFlorida Department of Transportation
ID number150189
Characteristics
Designcontinuous pre-stressed concrete cable-stayed bridge
Total length8851.392 meters (5.5 miles)
Width28.7 meters (94 feet)
Height213 meters
Longest span365.8 meters (1200 feet)
Clearance above58.8 meters (193 feet)
Clearance below53.3 meters (175 feet)
History
Opened1954 (original bridge, collapsed 1980)
April 20, 1987 (new bridge)
Statistics
Daily traffic50,500[1][2][3]
Toll$1 for passenger cars or $0.75 with SunPass

The Sunshine Skyway Bridge, spanning Florida's Tampa Bay, is the world's longest bridge with a cable-stayed main span, with a length of 29,040 feet (exactly 5.5 miles or approximately 8.85 km).[4] It is part of I-275 (SR 93) and US 19 (SR 55), connecting St. Petersburg in Pinellas County and Terra Ceia in Manatee County, Florida, passing through Hillsborough County waters. Construction of the current bridge began in 1982, and the completed bridge was dedicated on February 7, 1987. The new bridge cost $667 million to build, and was opened to traffic on April 20, 1987.

It is constructed of steel and concrete. Twenty-one steel cables clad in nine-inch (229 mm) steel tubes along the center line of the bridge support the structure. It was designed by the Figg & Muller Engineering Group, and built by the American Bridge Company.

In September 1994, an act of Florida Legislature officially named the current bridge the Bob Graham Sunshine Skyway Bridge, after the Governor of Florida who presided over its design and most of its construction. According to sources, he was inspired to suggest the current design by a visit to France, where he saw a similar cable-stayed bridge. The original bridge was dedicated to state engineer William E Dean, as noted on a plaque displayed at the south rest area of the bridge.

The Travel Channel rated the Sunshine Skyway #3 in its special on the "Top 10 Bridges" in the World. The bridge is considered the "flag bridge" of Florida.[5]

Because of its height above the emerald-green Gulf waters, length of continuous travel, location in a warm-weather state, and modern architectural design, it is a popular spot for filming automobile commercials.

One of the major problems with the Sunshine Skyway Bridge is corrosion of the steel in the precast concrete segments. Because the segments are hollow, workers were able to enter the bridge superstructure in 2003 and 2004 to reinforce the corroded sections of the bridge, ensuring its future safety.[5] Another problem arose around 2005–2006 when several news bureaus uncovered peeling paint on the bridge's cables. These paint splotches and patches were a result of touch-ups that were performed over the years but began to show through over recent years. In 2008, FDOT began an overhaul including repainting the cables in their entirety (instead of touching up), rehabilitating the lighting system at the summit of the bridge, as well as repainting the concrete retaining walls [6]

The original Sunshine Skyway Bridge

The present bridge replaces a steel cantilever bridge of the same name. The original two-lane bridge was completed in 1954, with a similar structure built parallel to it in 1969 to make it a four-lane bridge and bring it to Interstate standards.

The old bridge replaced a ferry from Point Pinellas to Piney Point. US 19 was extended from St. Petersburg to its current end north of Palmetto when the bridge opened.

The original Sunshine Skyway Bridge is featured in the old-time radio series "Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar" in the episode "The Fancy Bridgework Matter" (11/22/1959) and in the original opening credits to the 1988 Superboy TV series which showed the hero flying over the damaged original span and then turning to view the new bridge under construction.

The remaining approaches to the old cantilever bridge remain in use as Skyway Fishing Pier State Park.

The original Sunshine Skyway Bridge was the site of a number of tragic events, including the collision of the US Coast Guard ship Blackthorn and outbound freighter Capricorn in 1980 which claimed 23 sailors' lives[7], and a structural collapse caused by a collision with the bridge support by the inbound freighter Summit Venture in 1980 which killed 35 people. Following these two events in the same year, some local legends began to circulate about the bridge being cursed, or of hearing the cries of the victims on foggy days and/or dark nights.

The Blackthorn tragedy

The USCGC Blackthorn (WLB-391) was outbound from Tampa Bay, having just completed a total refit, as the tanker Capricorn was inbound. Having just been overtaken by a brightly-lit cruise ship, the Blackthorn had manuevered into the center of the channel to allow the passenger ship to pass. As a consequence of the cruise ship's lights, the Blackthorn was unable to get a visual on the approaching Capricorn in the night's darkness. As the two ships approached, the Blackthorn gave two short whistles to signal it's intention to pass to starboard as the Capricorn crowded the center of the channel. At some point, the Blackthorn, helmed by a junior officer, initiated evasive action but it was already too late. The two ships collided nearly head-on, with the anchor of the tanker imbedding itself in the hull plates of the cutter. At least 6 crewman of the Blackthorn were trapped by the mangled metal skin of the ship. As the ships' momentum carried each other along, the anchor line of the tanker grew taut and pulled the Blackthorn over, capsizing the smaller ship and resulting in the drowning deaths of 23 crew trapped on board and belowdecks, approximately 3/4 of a mile from the Sunshine Skyway Bridge.

Following the accident, the Blackthorn was recovered and taken to drydock for postmortem analysis. Because it had been involved in a fatal accident, it was decided not to repair the vessel. She was stripped of her gear and had her mast and superstructure reduced. The hulk was then towed offshore and intentionally sunk as an artificial reef.

Bridge disaster

The southbound span of the original bridge (the one built in 1969) was destroyed on May 9, 1980, when the freighter MV Summit Venture collided with a pier (support column) during a storm, sending over 1200 feet (366m) of the bridge plummeting into Tampa Bay. The collision caused six automobiles and a Greyhound bus to fall 150 feet (46 m), killing 35 people.[8][9]

One man, Wesley MacIntire, survived the fall when his pickup truck landed on the deck of the Summit Venture before falling into the bay. He sued the company that owned the ship, and settled for $175,000 in 1984.[10] For the remaining nine years of his life until he died in 1989, MacIntire was haunted by the fact that he was the only one to survive the fall from the collapsing bridge. [11]

The collapsed original bridge on May 9, 1980 after the Summit Venture collision. Photo by St. Petersburg Times.

The pilot of the ship, John Lerro, was cleared of wrongdoing by both a state grand jury and a Coast Guard investigation. Although Lerro resumed his shipping duties soon afterward, he was forced to retire months later by the onset of multiple sclerosis,[12] dying from complications caused by the disease on August 31, 2002 at the age of 59.

After the Summit Venture disaster, the northbound span carried one lane in either direction until the current bridge opened. Before the old bridge was demolished and hauled away in barges, the last person permitted to drive over it was Wes MacIntire, the occupant of the Ford pickup who had gone over the side on that fateful morning. He was accompanied by his wife, and when they reached the top of the bridge, they dropped 35 white carnations into the water, one for each person who lost a life in the disaster.[13] The main span of the northbound bridge was demolished in 1993 and the approaches for both old spans were made into the Skyway Fishing Pier State Park. These approaches sit 1/2 mile (0.8 km) to the south and west of the current bridge.

Graham's idea for the design of the current bridge won out over other proposals, including a tunnel (deemed impractical due to Florida's high water table) and a simple reconstruction of the broken section of the old bridge that would not have improved shipping conditions. The new bridge's main span is 50% wider than the old bridge. The piers of the main span and the approaches for 1/4 mile (0.4 km) in either direction are surrounded by large concrete barriers called "dolphins" that can protect the bridge piers from collisions with freighters larger than the Summit Venture.[14]

Bridge suicides

According to compilations from various media reports, at least 96 people have committed suicide by jumping from the center span into the waters of Tampa Bay since the opening of the new bridge in 1987 and many more have tried.[15] Another 51 people ended their lives from the old Sunshine Skyway from 1954-1987. Several other missing persons are suspected of having jumped from the bridge, but their deaths could not be confirmed as no bodies were recovered.

In response to the bridge's popularity as method of demise for the depressed, the State of Florida installed six crisis hotline phones along the center span in 1999, and began 24-hour patrols. As of 2003, the call center received 18 calls from potential jumpers, all of whom survived, according to a St. Petersburg Times report.[16] However, the total number of jumpers has not significantly declined since the introduction of these safeguards.

On April 27, 1997 a group of amateur daredevils, led by a bartender from Ft. Lauderdale and composed of a mix of male and female participants, did an unannounced guerrilla "pendulum swing" bungee jump off the bridge, where they were to go back and forth on a home-made bungee cord made of steel cable attached to the cast-off point. Arriving by stretch limosine, the group unexpectedly pulled over at the apex of the bridge, quickly rigged up their cable, tethered themselves to it with harnesses, and jumped over the edge. This stunt failed when the plastic sheathing on the steel cable, unable to handle the increase gravitational forces exerted on it by the initial pendulum swing, sheared off and allowed the connecting clamps to slide freely off the cable, plunging the jumpers 60 feet (18 m) into the water, leading to broken bones and neck injuries. The entire accident was caught on multiple video cameras that had been set up to record the feat.[17] When later interviewed for a television video program, the group's leader stated that all of the components were rated to handle the combined weight of the participants, and, at the time, he thought the assembly was safe. Later studies showed that his design had failed to take into account the increased g-load caused by the pendulum action of the jump itself, exceeding the ratings on the components and leading to catastrophic failure of the structural integrity of the bungee cable. Since the accident, no other groups have attempted to do a stunt jump from the bridge. This incident aired on Destroyed In Seconds on March 2, 2009

In 2006 a feature film entitled Loren Cass was released which depicted a suicide jump off the Sunshine Skyway.[18]

Old Bridge Demolition

In 1990 the Florida Department of Transportation awarded the winning bid to the Hardaway Company to demolish all steel and concrete sections of the Sunshine Skyway Bridge. In 1991 The Hardaway company formed the engineering and management team (George Brown project Manager and Jacob Apelbaum the Project Engineer) to begin the demolition work.[19]

The scope of the project required that all underwater piles and piers, and surface roadway, girders, and beams be dismantled. Special care had to be taken in removing underwater bridge elements near the shipping channel. Additionally, the concrete material, deck sections, pilings and steel girders were to be collected in order to be placed offshore and along the remaining bridge approaches to become artificial reefs for the new planned state fishing park. The main bridge span had to be removed in one piece in order not to block the main shipping canal leading to the port of Tampa.

During the disassembly work of the bridges’ structural steel members, several difficult engineering challenges had to be resolved: the order of disassembly, a safe method for detonating charges on concrete and steel members in a publicly open and difficult to control area such as the Tampa Bay, and the development of a safe methodology for the removal in one piece of the bridge’s main span.

After some extensive research, the engineering team developed a 4 x 1: 16 ratio pulley system where each of the 4 corners of the span was connected to two 25 ton winches (bolted to the deck of the pavement). These winches controlled the descent of the main 360-foot (110 m), 608 ton span to a barge anchored 150 feet (46 m) below. As part of the solution, the engineering team developed a real time computerized, synchronized descent calculator and control program to help each of the two winch management teams insure that all winches were synchronized at the same 30 feet (9.1 m) per minute descent rate. The solution was executed successfully in 2 1/2 hours despite adverse weather conditions.[20]

As bridge disassembly work progressed,.[19] 

a number of environmental agencies discovered that the daily demolition activities (especially the underwater blasting of concrete piers and claiming of debris from the sea bottom) could seriously threaten protected marine mammals in the vicinity of the work.  To address these issues, the engineering team developed bubble screens, underwater alarms systems, and confinement walls which were used extensively during the project.  A true testament to the effectiveness of these devices was that during the entire demolition project none of the environmental agencies identified a single marine mammal casualty.

Current Bridge

  • The bridge at twilight
    The bridge at twilight
  • View of bridge from Fort De Soto Park's East Beach
    View of bridge from Fort De Soto Park's East Beach
  • Sunshine Skyway Bridge from South Pier rest area
    Sunshine Skyway Bridge from South Pier rest area
  • Driving on the bridge, near the peak
    Driving on the bridge, near the peak
  • View of bridge heading south
    View of bridge heading south
  • As seen from the water of Tampa Bay
    As seen from the water of Tampa Bay
  • View while driving across Sunshine Skyway Bridge
    View while driving across Sunshine Skyway Bridge

Old Bridge demolition

  • Demolition of concrete structure and slab - South access road
    Demolition of concrete structure and slab - South access road
  • Demolition of concrete structure and slab - North access road
    Demolition of concrete structure and slab - North access road
  • Demolition of steel and concrete girders
    Demolition of steel and concrete girders
  • Main bridge span secure on barge being towed away
    Main bridge span secure on barge being towed away
  • Blasting concrete piers
    Blasting concrete piers
  • Blasting steel truss
    Blasting steel truss
  • Blasting steel truss
    Blasting steel truss

Media Coverage

  • Editorial (1991-09-07), "The Skyway is falling!", ENR Engineering News Weekly, p. 13
  • Editorial (1991-09-13), "The Sunshine Skyway Bridge - a History of Ups and Downs", Dodge Construction Magazine, p. 5-6
  • Starnes, Sam (1991-09-25), "Original Skyway's main span removed", The Bradenton Herald, p. A3-A6

References

  1. ^ 2006 Average Annual Daily Traffic Counts in Pinellas County (A.A.D.T.) (PDF) (Map). Pinellas County Metropolitan Planning Organization. Retrieved 2008-01-13.
  2. ^ PTMS and TTMS Sites, 2006, Pinellas County (15) (PDF) (Map). Florida Department of Transportation. Retrieved 2008-01-13.
  3. ^ "2006 Annual Average Daily Traffic Report" (PDF). Florida Department of Transportation. pp. Site 0088. Retrieved 2008-01-13.
  4. ^ "Sunshine Skyway Bridge". Public Broadcasting Service. Retrieved 2007-01-26.
  5. ^ a b Garcia, Jose. "The Skyway Bridge - Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow" (PDF). Florida Department of Transportaiton. Retrieved 2007-03-18.
  6. ^ St. Petersburg Times
  7. ^ http://www.uscg.mil/history/webcutters/BlackthornPressRelease.asp
  8. ^ "A blinding squall, then death". St. Petersburg Times. Retrieved 2007-02-01.
  9. ^ Jean Heller (2000-05-07). "The Day Skyway Fell: May 9, 1980". St. Petersburg Times. Retrieved 2007-07-04.
  10. ^ "Suit in Bridge Fall Settlement". New York Times Archives. May 6, 1984. Retrieved 2007-02-01. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  11. ^ Tampabay: Horrific accident created an unforgettable scene
  12. ^ Jean Heller (2000-05-07). "Memories stay with man at command of the ship". St. Petersburg Times. Retrieved 2007-07-04.
  13. ^ Wright, E. Lynne (2006). Disasters and Heroic Rescues of Florida. Morris book publishing, LLC. p. 111. ISBN 0762739843.
  14. ^ "Building big: Databank: Sunshine Skyway Bridge". PBS Online. Retrieved 2007-07-04.
  15. ^ "The Skyway Bridge Jumper Pool". Retrieved 2007-07-04.
  16. ^ Jones, Jamie (October 6, 2003). "Skyway safeguards don't deter jumpers". St. Petersburg Times. Retrieved 2007-02-01. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  17. ^ O'Neil, Deborah (April 28, 1997). "Four hurt in Skyway stunt". St. Petersburg Times. Retrieved 2007-03-18. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  18. ^ Wilson, Jon (October 11, 2006). "Movie will have its first local viewing". St. Petersburg Times. Retrieved 2007-05-28. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  19. ^ a b Staff Writer. "The Sunshine Skyway Bridge-a History of Ups and Downs". Retrieved 2008-10-15. {{cite web}}: Text ""Selecting the Sunshine Demolition Team" (October 1992)" ignored (help)
  20. ^ Apelbaum, Jacob. "Dismantling the Skyway Bridge". Retrieved 2009-03-10. {{cite web}}: Text "(September 25 1992)" ignored (help)

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Sunshine Skyway Bridge.

Template:Tampa Bay Freeways and Tollways

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