NBC2 Investigators: Southwest Florida bridges - NBC-2.com WBBH News for Fort Myers, Cape Coral & Naples, Florida


NBC2 Investigators: Southwest Florida bridges

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Ramiro Palma depends on the College Parkway Bridge to get to and from his scuba diving shop in Fort Myers.

"The bridges are the lifeline of Cape Coral. If we don't have the bridges, people are stuck on the Cape and they're not going to be able to find work or go to find work and the people can't come visit," he said.

But he doesn't know, this bridge is classified "functionally obsolete" in its most recent inspection report. The report gave Florida a C- grade in overall infrastructure.

It's not just the College Parkway Bridge that is cause for concern.

NBC2 Investigators found 114 others in Southwest Florida that fall into the same category, such as the bridge on Airport Pulling Over Big Cypress Basin in Collier and the Myakka River Bridge in Charlotte.

A functionally obsolete bridge means it's not suitable for its current use. It lacks things like safety shoulders, and its design cannot handle current traffic volumes, speeds and weights.

Maria Fernandez-Porrat is part of a team of engineers that studies Florida's infrastructure.

"The infrastructure is average in the state of Florida as graded," she said.

Here's how it works: each bridge is given a rating on a typical 0-100 scale. Functionality makes up a third of that score.

The US-41 bridge over the Caloosahatchee River received a 57. In school grading terms, that would be an "F."

"Any number like that would put up a red flag," said Fernandez-Porrat.

Another red flag? The bridge has surpassed its 50-year design life span.

"There are elements that we could actually bring them up to standards," said Fernandez-Porrat.

But that takes money. A lot of it.

Since 2010, repair work accounts for more than $36 million on Lee, Collier and Charlotte county bridges. Another $294 million is on the books, and that work has already started, but with tight budgets, engineers fear the money will dry up.

"We're not saying that the funds are misused. We're saying that we need to allocate enough funding to make sure that when need comes, the funding is there," said Fernandez-Porrat.

For Ramiro and 40,000 other drivers, it's a perfect ride on an imperfect bridge.

"Couldn't ask for a better view in the morning," he said.

Local governments and the Florida Department of Transportation must inspect each bridge every two years. The College Parkway Bridge and the US-41 over the Caloosahatchee bridges were last inspected in 2013. Even though classified as functionally obsolete, they did pass inspection.