Going westbound you can see Clearwater Beach as well as the neighboring Sand Key Bridge and going eastbound you have a view of the skyline of downtown Clearwater. It makes one feel like that you are on an interstate highway rather than your typical bridge.
With the piers in question replaced, work progressed to completion and the new bridge opened in 2005. (PCL was the contractor on both projects). ran into the same problem when a pier on the elevated lanes of the Selmon Crosstown Expressway in Tampa sank. By coincidence, the contractor on the new Clearwater Memorial Causeway project - PCL Civil Constructors Inc.
#Clearwater duplicate bridge cracked
One of the most notable controversies was in 2004 when one of the piers of the new bridge cracked to the point that it was unsafe. Work began on the replacement bridge in 2001 however, a lot of controversy brewed during construction. After plenty of debate as to whether to build another drawbridge or a high level fixed span bridge, it was decided that the Clearwater Memorial Causeway drawbridge would be replaced by a high level fixed span bridge. However, rapid growth not only in Clearwater Beach and Clearwater as well as the construction of the condominium canyon in nearby Sand Key have taken its toll on heavy use of the Clearwater Memorial Causeway, not to mention the increasing number of visitors every year. Like its 1920's predecessor, the 1963 drawbridge served the needs of Clearwater, Clearwater Beach and the surrounding area well into the 21st Century. When the high level drawbridge opened in 19's drawbridge was converted into a fishing pier.īeing an integral part of FL 60, the 1963 Clearwater Memorial Causeway drawbridge was built as a 4-lane drawbridge to allow for expansion of the highway to better serve Clearwater Beach.
#Clearwater duplicate bridge plus
Around 1960 growth within Clearwater Beach as well as Clearwater itself plus heavy traffic was justification for the Florida DOT to build a high level drawbridge similar to the Madeira Beach Causeway to replace the 1920's two-lane drawbridge.
The two-lane Clearwater Memorial Causeway served its needs very well carrying beach goers to Clearwater Beach (back then, you did not have these high rise hotels and condominiums that we know today). The wooden bridge lasted for several years into the 1920's when a two-lane reinforced concrete drawbridge was built. At that time Pinellas County was just a young county only three years old after separation from Hillsborough County and Clearwater was just a sleepy little town, being selected as the county seat of Pinellas County to the disdain of St. The first Clearwater Memorial Causeway bridge was a wooden bridge built around 1915. Connecting Clearwater with Clearwater Beach, the Clearwater Memorial Causeway is a part of FL 60, a cross Florida highway beginning at the roundabout at Clearwater Beach and traversing the state across the Courtney Campbell Parkway and through Tampa, Brandon, Bartow, Lake Wales and the Florida Turnpike junction at Yeehaw Junction and ending in Vero Beach. Originally constructed in the 1920's as a low level two lane drawbridge, the Clearwater Memorial Causeway was reconstructed in 1963 as a high level drawbridge similar to the Madeira Beach Causeway and was liberated from the kingdom of the Draw Bridge Ahead warning sign in 2005 when the new high level Clearwater Memorial Causeway was opened.
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