FLAGLER BRIDGE BREAKS DOWN AGAIN

Overall, the bridge had seen 25 breakdowns in its first 11 months.

PALM BEACH — For the first time since June 7, the Flagler Memorial Bridge was closed to traffic due to a malfunction on Sunday.

The shutdown comes on the same day The Palm Beach Post reported on issues the $131.8 million bridge has endured since its revamped span was reopened to four lanes of traffic on July 31, 2017.

At 9:37 a.m. Sunday, the town of Palm Beach sent out a traffic alert stating that the bridge — also known as the North Flagler Bridge — was malfunctioning. It asked drivers to seek an additional route “to enter and exit Palm Beach.”

The bridge reopened at about 11:15 a.m., according to Geoffrey Parker, a Florida Department of Transportation engineer.

Michael Ogrodnick, spokesman for the Palm Beach Police, said that

there were no traffic issues or tie-ups due to the bridge issues Sunday.

The Flagler Memorial Bridge had seen a malfunction-free streak since June 7, its longest since the bridge was reopened to four lanes of traffic in 2017.

Parker said he didn’t know the reason for the malfunction Sunday, nor did Angel Gardner, a spokeswoman for the bridge’s replacement project.

The state was expected to assume ownership of the bridge today, in line with a stipulation in the contract for the bridge to be malfunction-free for 60 days before the contractor, PCL Civil Contractors, completes its obligations on the project. Sunday’s malfunction could restart that 60-day clock.

Overall, the bridge had seen 25 breakdowns in its first 11 months. Each time officials had thought they had found a fix, it seemed that the bridge would break down days or weeks later.

Even after seeking outside help in late April 2018 and a consultant issued a memo stating there were no major mechanical problems, the bridge broke down again three more times.

The Post’s investigation found that when a top state transportation official reached out to the bridge contractor’s North American president, the resulting internal probe led to finger-pointing by a project manager. In addition, The Post found that engineers questioned the drawbridge’s design and speculated attempted fixes to early problems may have contributed to other breakdowns later on.

In addition, The Post found that a contractor’s spotty records may have hurt efforts to find a solution to the multiple breakdowns earlier and that other emails show PCL Civil Contractors failed to alert Palm Beach quickly about malfunctions and tests. That failure contributed to delays.

PCL would not have had to pay fines or damages if there had been no more malfunctions before the company contract expired today. It is not known what effect Sunday’s breakdown will have on that.

For more on the issues with the Flagler Memorial Bridge, please see our investigation at MyPalmBeachPost.com/ bridge-breakdowns.