Project Specifications
Project: 17th Street Causeway Bascule Bridge
Location: Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA
Owner: Florida Department of Transportation
Prime Contractor: Traylor Bros.
Construction: 1999 – 2001
Bridge Description
The 17th Street Causeway Bridge in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, was constructed along the alignment of the previous drawbridge, which was removed to make way for the new bridge. The cost of the transformation was $62 million. The new bridge was completed in 2001 and offers bike lanes, an emergency lane and pedestrian overlooks. While work was carried out on the new permanent bridge, a temporary Dutch style bridge was put in place to maintain traffic flow.
The cost of the permanent bridge was $62 million, and the temporary bridge $6 million. The new bridge increases the vertical clearance from 25ft to 55ft and the channel width from 100ft to 125ft. The 17th Street approach spans are made of twin variable depth–constant slope concrete segmental bridges, built using a combination of balanced cantilever and progressive cantilever construction methods.