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ScribeBy:
Jessica Vanegeren of The Post and
Courier Staff
Originally Published on: 12/14/02
Builders of new bridge avoided problems, suggested change that saved $700,000 The structural frame of the Limehouse replacement bridge is near completion - the most visible sign that the project is on schedule and has avoided the problems that have plagued the Stono River bridge project down the river on Maybank Highway.
Both bridges are under construction, and both could open to traffic as early as spring, although their final completion will be some months after that.
Jones Bros., the Tennessee-based construction company contracted to build the Limehouse bridge, "has done a good job so far by proposing changes, saving us time and money," said Richard Boston, resident construction engineer with the state Transportation Department.
The company subcontracted the road work portion to Banks Construction Co. of North Charleston. "It's a very successful project," Boston said.
Besides bringing in construction two months early and a new completion date now set for September, the contractor cut the project's $21 million cost by $700,000 with a suggestion to substitute spans of bridge for an existing forward-reaching area of land. The savings will be split between the state and Jones Bros.
Boston said the bridge will be as structurally strong as originally planned.
The Limehouse replacement's remaining to-do list includes filling the remaining gap where the bridge will span the water, pouring concrete and striping the bridge for two lanes.
Clifton Hough, project manager with Jones Bros., said the structural steel beams used to connect the bridge's sides should be in place by mid-January.
"That will put us ahead of schedule again, weather permitting," Hough said.
Expect traffic delays around 9 a.m. next week for roughly 20-minute intervals while beams are lifted into place.The new road work around the Limehouse Bridge is also nearing an end. The McLeod Hill Road extension needs only to be surfaced. A new one-way road connecting High Court Lane to Bayou Road at the northern terminus of the bridge still needs to be built.
The road was an addition to the original design, Boston said, done at the request of residents and for safety concerns. The alternative, a traffic light at the end of the bridge, would have caused more problems, he said.
"A traffic light at the northern end of the bridge wasn't going to work," he said. "It would create rear-ending accidents. We would have just been substituting one accident for another."
The Limehouse bridge work has gone smoothly, especially compared with interruptions that have marked the bridge construction on Maybank Highway where it crosses the Stono. Work there stopped three times last summer because of accidents. The contractor, Republic Contracting Corp., was not to blame for one incident - an off-course barge hitting the bridge. In the two other cases, construction cranes toppled over.
The problems stopped construction at the site for roughly three months. The project's completion date is set for March 2004.
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