KCA provided a full time inspection and monitoring team for the Escambia Bay Bridges, located in Pensacola, Florida from May 2005 through December 2006. These two parallel bridges are 13,868 foot long and carry Interstate 10 traffic across Escambia Bay. These two structures were ravaged by Hurricane Ivan in September 2004. During the storm much of the Superstructure and Substructure of the lower level spans were damaged or destroyed. In addition to the critical damage that existed throughout both bridges, two sections of the eastbound bridge had been reconstructed. The reconstruction chosen was the utilization of temporary Acrow bridge span sections. The two sections were 1,360 foot and 2,160 foot long respectively. The high volume of traffic which consists of a large percentage of truck traffic quickly took its toll on these already critically damaged bridges.

In 2005 a federally funded contract was awarded to construct a replacement structure across Escambia Bay. It was decided that during the reconstruction of the new structures the contractor would assume the responsibility of maintaining the two existing structures to assure they remain safe for use by the motoring public. KCA’s inspection teams worked as part of the construction inspection team headed by Parsons Brinkerhoff Construction Services, which acted as an extension of the Florida Department of Transportation. KCA provided daily inspections of the temporary Acrow sections, weekly inspections of the undersides of both bridges and provided emergency hurricane assessment inspections throughout the 2005 and 2006 hurricane seasons. Detailed reports with repair recommendations were made to assure that the structures remained safe until December 2006, when traffic was removed from the damaged bridges and onto the newly constructed bridges.