Freedom Road closed as the council looks for better solution
Bridge on Freedom Road closed for failing infrastructure
Although no action was taken, the Century Town Council agreed Monday night to replace instead of repair the bridge on Freedom Road after its closure following an inspection by Mott McDonald that deemed it 'not safe', with possible collapse if it stayed in use.
The inspection also recommended the town inspect its bridges not currently inspected by the Florida Department of Transportation every two years as required by the Federal Highway Administration for bridges longer than 20 feet. This recommendation will help the town's bridges meet the requirements of the National Bridge Inspection Standards, although the town's bridges are all less than 20 feet long.
Century City Manager Vernon Prather presented the findings he received to the council.
"The engineer's recommendation was that we close it," said Prather. "The engineer's estimate is approximately $75,000 to $100,000 to repair it to get it back to traffic worthiness and get a little life out of it. You can see the other option to replace it, which will be about $300,000."
Prather said the town could spend some Local Option Sales Tax (LOST) money because the bridge is outside of the Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) perimeters. He said about 60 homes with about 100 people will be affected, including the garbage pick up and school buses.
Prather asked the council to give him time to work on the project to get ready to put out bids and that they could consider rebuilding it as a concrete structure instead of using wood piling supports like it currently has, which will fail again in 10 or 15 years. He said that to repair it would involves installing some new wood pieces to keep it wood piling. Council members expressed concerns that they would have to address the same problem in several years, which influenced their approval of replacing the bridge.
Prather said Century CPA Robert Hudson will bring an amended budget reflecting a $300,000 transfer to pay debt services, so they could either add $300,000 to this year, or budget the $300,000 in LOST funds for Fiscal Year 2020-21.
The new bridge will be wider, Prather said, to incorporate pedestrians and deeper underneath to bring it up to standards.
"We might as well go on and replace it, no need to repair it," said Councilwoman Sandra McMurray Jackson. "If we're going to spend $100,000 now and in five years, go back and do it again, it's going to cost more. We've got enough LOST money, so let's cover it. That's what it is there for."
