Tuesday, Feb. 09, 2010

Ben Sawyer bridge replaced by new span

MOUNT PLEASANT -- The last time the Ben Sawyer Bridge moved as much was some 20 years ago during Hurricane Hugo, when the fury of the storm left the swing span pointed skyward at a 45-degree angle.

On Monday, crews using heavy equipment lifted the historic, weathered truss bridge about a foot and moved it 100 feet from the pedestal where it had rested since 1945.

Jason Metts, whose aunt Linda Page serves on Mount Pleasant Town Council, watched the old bridge being dismantled from the East Cooper Outboard Motor Club on Goldbug Island.

He remembered childhood summers when he and friends pedaled bikes from his grandmother's house on the Isle of Palms to Sullivan's Island and across the Ben Sawyer to buy baseball cards in Mount Pleasant.

"How many millions of times have we ridden over that bridge?" he wondered aloud. "I wish my old man could be here to see it. He passed away last week," Metts said. His father, Ronnie Metts, was known locally as "Captain Shorty," he said.

After being removed, the 640-ton Ben Sawyer swing span sat on a barge in the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway next to its replacement, a spiffy new span patterned after its predecessor.

Tugs will turn the barge holding the old and new spans 360 degrees so that the new truss-design bridge will be ready for installation. Putting the new span in place was expected to be delayed by rain today, said James Law, media relations specialist for the state Department of Transportation.

After the old swing span was removed, crews for contractor PB Americas began installing new swing span approaches built on temporary pilings parallel to the bridge. That operation was expected to go around the clock in anticipation of putting the new span in place.

The bridge was closed Sunday for up to 10 days for the operation.

When the new Ben Sawyer is finished, the size of its car lanes will increase from 12 feet to 14 feet, and the 2.5-foot-wide bike and pedestrian paths on both sides will be replaced with a single 5-foot-wide path on the harbor side.

The new path will be elevated 10 inches above the pavement. The replacement span was built at the old Navy base and brought in by barge.

Islanders insisted that the new swing span mirror the old span in design. A majority fought against a new fixed span bridge because they didn't want Sullivan's Island to become a thoroughfare for the Isle of Palms.

Inspectors for the Ben Sawyer Bridge have found several structural issues over the years. Last year, the 124-foot bridge was closed for 72 hours so rusty steel beams supporting its 5-ton bridge-tender's house could be replaced.