South Florida Sun-Sentinel Palm Beach (Sunday)
Drawbridge reopens after stuck upright for weeks
County warns more closures likely in future
DELRAY BEACH — Nearly two months after the drawbridge at George Bush Boulevard in Delray Beach got stuck in the upright position, Palm Beach County said Friday that it is finally reopening.
“The bridge has now been deemed safe and will re-open and be fully operational” no later than 5 p.m., the county said in a news release. Still, “intermittent bridge closures are to be expected as continued monitoring is planned.”
The bridge, which is located between Southeast 15th Street and Atlantic Avenue, remained in the upright position since March 3 when it opened for boat traffic and then became stuck. Engineers identified damage to the main shaft and the gear machinery as the cause of the problem.
Since then, the bridge has remained in the upright position, forcing drivers to find alternate routes from the mainland over the Intracoastal Waterway to the beach. Traffic has been detoured via Northeast Fifth Avenue/ Northeast Sixth Avenue, Atlantic Avenue and North Ocean Boulevard.
A Palm Beach County spokesman had said Tuesday that engineers were still “testing all the mechanisms now” and “making sure alignment and functions are good.”
In mid-March, the bridge grabbed additional attention, when it drew a visit from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other officials. They used the bridge as a symbol to illustrate what could be fixed or improved through the $19 billion that Florida is set to receive from the $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, known as the infrastructure bill.
The Palm Beach County Road and Bridge department and the Florida Transportation are working to repair the bridge’s machinery. Engineers built a new shaft on March 11 to replace the damaged one, which sheared in two places. A subsequent investigation found they needed to replace the machinery parts for the bridge.
On March 18, the county said it would take six weeks, and potentially longer, to build a new replacement bearing. Friday had marked six weeks, when it delivered the news of the reopening.