On October 18, 2017, a structural failure resulted in an 83,000-pound section of the SR-5 Earman River Bridge sidewalk and barrier wall to break away from the 6-lane bridge and fall into the Earman River in Palm Beach County. In response to this failure, FDOT closed the Earman River channel and bridge sidewalks and placed the bridge in a 3-lane configuration which resulted in major traffic delays on SR-5. 8 days later, FDOT awarded a 10-day emergency bridge repair contract to start the following day with incentives to ensure the bridge was reopened 56 hours later.
The project consisted of installing a full bridge detour, saw-cutting & removing seven 36,000-pound sections of the bridge, removing the fallen sidewalk section from the channel, installing 950 feet of barrier wall, installing pedestrian fences, and re-striping mainline SR-5 to allow four traffic lanes, two bike lanes, and two sidewalks. Despite the arrival of Tropical Storm Phillipe, which caused a 12-hour work stoppage, the Contractor successfully re-opened the bridge and sidewalks 45 hours after the detour was installed (11 hours ahead of schedule) and achieved Final Acceptance 2 days ahead of schedule on November 3, 2017.
Johnson Bros. and Creative Engineering co-developed a construction method to saw-cut the sections of the bridge over the river for removal which resulted in zero environmental impacts. This entailed attaching the section of the bridge to be removed to the crane, saw-cutting the section to a depth of 16” (18” thick), and vacuuming the concrete slurry with liquid vacuums. Once the saw cut was complete and the concrete slurry removed, the crane lowered the section to allow it to break away from the bridge under its own weight. Utilizing this method, the Project Team ensured zero concrete slurry entered the Earman River. This method also allowed Johnson Bros. to remove all 7 bridge sections prior to the arrival of Tropical Storm Philippe, saving valuable time and ensuring worker safety.