Demolition slated for former Florida trail bridge

Demolition of a popular trail bridge in St. Petersburgh is expected to begin Sept. 14. According to an article in the The Tampa Tribune, Pittsburg-based American Bridge Co., which won the $9.35 million contract, will start demolishing the center span of the 59-year-old bridge, then. In preparation, workers have been removing handrails, the catwalk and poles.

The demolition will begin near the center of the bridge and crews will work their way landward on both sides. The article says the 72-foot spans will be cut into manageable pieces and removed by a crane barge on the north side of the bridge.

All material will be transported to the contractor’s facility where it will be processed and transported to a recycler for use as road base and aggregates for construction material. The project is expected to take about 16 months to complete.

The TrailBridge was once the Gandy Bridge that was converted to a recreational trail in December 1999. According to the report, more than 500,000 joggers, cyclists and fishermen used the trail annually.

In 2008, engineers found some of the bridge’s structural steel and the concrete encompassing it were eroding and closed the bridge.

The Tribune says the bridge was slated for demolition in April 2012, but was delayed because of interest in turning the trail into a linear park. The demolition was rebid when that project failed to materialize.