Sunshine Skyway Bridge

http://www.fpcaweb.org... The Sunshine Skyway Bridge, spanning Florida's Tampa Bay, is the world's fifth largest cable-stay bridge with longest cable-stayed main span, with a length of 29,040 feet (exactly 5.5 miles or approximately 8.85 km). 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 $244 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 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 November 2005, 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.

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. 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. FDOT is currently performing an overhaul which will include 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.

Bridge disaster

The southbound span of the original bridge (the one built in 1969) was destroyed on May 9, 1980, when the freighter SS 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.

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. 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 off the collapsing bridge.

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, from which he died in 2002.

After the Summit Venture disaster, the northbound span carried one lane in either direction until the current bridge opened. 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.

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