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O.C. Phillips Bridge Closes; Residents Concerned Long Detour Will Flood
November 14, 2017
The Florida Department of Transportation has closed the Brushy Creek Bridge on O.C. Phillips Road about a mile east of South Pineville Road due to a failed inspection.
Coupled with last week’s closure of the Arthur Brown Road bridge at Freeman Springs Branch, between Pine Forest and Pineville roads, some residents are faced with a detour of up to 15 miles using Pineville Road. Much of detour is on the very remote and rural dirt Pineville Road and across a Pineville Road bridge the usually floods after heavy rainfall.
“This is ridiculous and we are sick of it,” said Tracy Garrett, a local resident now forced to use the long detour. “If it rains too much the lower bridge will be under water.”
“Both of those bridges were under water not three weeks ago,” Garrett said.
“I apologize to the residents that have to deal with it,” Escambia County District 5 Commissioner Steven Barry said. “I am going to work to see that we expedite the procurement process for both bridges to get the residents back to their daily routine as soon as possible.”
Barry stressed that the closure are due to state inspections. When those inspections show a structural deficiency, the county must follow the state order to close the bridge.
Even with next week’s Thanksgiving holiday, Barry said he believes the commission can use the county’s general pricing agreement with contractors in order to have replacement contracts ready for approval at the commission’s next meeting on November 30 in order to get repair work started soon.
Photos for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Comments
13 Responses to “O.C. Phillips Bridge Closes; Residents Concerned Long Detour Will Flood”
Terry, you ask “How does every bridge fail inspenction and every road in the north county fail inspection and need work at the SAME TIME?” As Well stated below “…..there’s probably only three or four bridges in the North End of the county with a high enough weight limit to withstand a loaded log truck or dump truck yet they cross all of them.”
There’s a lot of logging going on and the log trucks crossing all of these bridges are likely above the posted weight limits. I know they certainly do a number on the dirt road itself. Those bridges just aren’t constructed to bear that much weight crossing it repeatedly. I believe the drivers are paid by number of loads/quantity delivered daily so they tend to run fast (which makes the blind curves a real challenge) and push the limit every day they are on site.
Not just the Pineville rd area…Now Molino, Crabtree Church, OC Phillips, Arthur Brown, Sandy Hollow. How does every bridge fail inspenction and every road in the north county fail inspection and need work at the SAME TIME?
Ya’ll do understand there’s probably only three or four bridges in the North End of the county with a high enough weight limit to withstand a loaded log truck or dump truck yet they cross all of them.
Again I repeat IF PENALTIES WERE APPLIED TO COMPANIES THAT FAIL TO FINISH ON CONTRACTED TIME,THIS PROBLEM WWOULD BE ALLEVIATED…AT LEAST BRIDGES WOULD BE OPEN SOONER…HIT THE COMPANIES IN THEIR POCKETBOOKS!!
Just a little over 3 weeks ago, Jim Hubbird Hill Branch nearly cut a trench in N Pineville completely across it. So what happens over the next 3 months or longer if we have heavy rainfall??? We will now have to deal with slick roads that become impassable during rainy days and since the county has failed to keep drainage ditches the Pineville Road will also be under water at different places all along the detour route that has been assigned to the residents
.
No one seems to have answers and 15 miles is being generous on the detour, it will depend on what end of Pineville road you live on.
Just to clear up something stated by Willis… if S. Pineville bridge goes underwater that doesn’t always mean O.C. Phillips is underwater. I have actually seen N. Pineville flood also. It’s frustrating because someone isn’t doing their county job or these bridges wouldn’t be shutdown by the state. Inspections should be performed more often due to the amount of logging going on. My concern with this is the safety issue it poses if 911 is needed. As for “expidite” I’ve never seen the county expidite any situation especially here on the North end.
Could all of the heavy log trucks traveling over the bridges on Occie Philips Road possibly have caused the damage? Of course, there are also two small bridges at Three Run they have used, as well. How are those? Now that the roads are closed, logging operations have shockingly gone silent. If they come back to work and start using the North Pineville Road route, won’t be long till that route is messed up, too.
>>>Come on Steven Berry, work for us citizens of District 5 and get these bridges reopened.
The Molino Road Bridge is a state FDOT project and FDOT contract.
Why has the county let these bridges get
in that of shape ?????
We are paying 10 cent on the gallon to keep
the bridges up !!!!!
Expedite these bridges BUT MOLINO RD BRIDGE IS STILL CLOSED AND NO ONE IS WORKING ON IT. THIS IS CRAZY!!!!! All that’s left is to pave the road to bridge. Come on Steven Berry, work for us citizens of District 5 and get these bridges reopened.
North pineville floods and water cuts trenches across road also Willis since the county made their improvements!
Commissioner Steven Barry would you please follow up on the Molino Rd. bridge that has been closed since January 3rd. and still not finished. Went by there today (Tuesday) and no workers present .
Don’t be too concerned if Pineville Road goes underwater OC Phillips is underwater also.
Could be easier for some to go north to Nokomis Road.
I’m sure it’s aggravating either way.