Metro Jacksonville

Anyone take the re-innagural trip over the mighty bridge yet?  How's the new concrete?

smoother than the existing concrete portions.

I'm still skeptical as to how much safer it really is with the concrete versus the grating.

the concrete is great!

How many people will crash on it by the end of the week?

I give it 2 day of clear sailing and then at least one direction gets shut down for 2 hours during rush hour.

Went across yesterday on the bike. Pretty sweet, as compared to before.   8)

THANK YOU JACKSONVILLE! WELL DONE!

Just spent the morning with "bridge grating" numbers...YIKES! Maybe you never had a problem with the Matthews, but you sure as hell could have! Just open a Yahoo search for "bridge grating accidents!" don't enter a city, state or any other query data. The Matthews covers the page, at least the first 5 items on a international web search peg the Matthews as "Public Enemy #1!"  Here is one of the FDOT stat articles from the as reprinted by the Financial News and Daily Record:

QuoteRay said the bridge’s grating, which was replaced in 1999, is “a hazard.”

According to the the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office, 93 accidents have been reported on the bridge since the first of the year. Over 300 were reported in 2003.

“This is a very serious problem,” said Ray, an engineer. “It’s unacceptable for the bridge to remain the way it is. The DOT needs to take responsibility and do something about it.”

Ray, who also sits on the Metropolitan Planning Organization, said concerns regarding the safety of the grating have been building since it was installed five years ago.

In 2000, the Council passed a resolution urging the FDOT to investigate the new grating and its role in the number bridge accidents.

“What’s happened,” he said, “is that they keep doing studies to determine the slide and skid ratios on the bridge. That’s not where the problem is.

“The problem is that ever since the grates were replaced, they have never been correctly aligned.”

Due to that misalignment, Ray said it’s possible for any of the 75,000 vehicles that travel the bridge daily to cause an accident.

“I’ve personally observed the panels and it’s obvious that they don’t line up,” he said. “That needs to be changed because it’s not safe.”

Thank God, someone at JTA and FDOT had their radar on this thing, we could have gone down in history right along with the Sunshine Skyway as the City with that bridge that killed all those poor people... Could have... but didn't.

THANK YOU TO:
JSO
MPO
JTA (I might pick on you about LRT, but for highways, you guys ROCK!)
FDOT
CITY OF JACKSONVILLE
Ocklawaha

There is a crash at the top of the Mathews Bridge. That didn't take long.

I'm not suprised.  Hopefully everyone is ok though.


Have you guys ever repaired an innertube on a bike tire?  You know the little patch kit that come with the glue, a rubber patch and the metal "scuffer"?  Well the metal scuffer would be similar to the roughed up grating on the bridge.  Ever notice how well it sticks to the rubber on the innertube?  The rubber tires naturally have great traction on a rough metal grating.  More benefits of the grating are that it immediately sheds water, debris, oil, and other fluids that can collect of a paved surface.  Instead of being able to shed these materials easily there now has to be a way to get rid of water, etc but because concrete by nature holds water and other fluids at the surface for a long period of time things can and will get very slippery especially on a grade as steep as the Matthews Bridge.

I'm not sold on the benefits of replacing the grating with concrete.  Maybe you guys sway my decision.  If I had to guess, I would say there will be as many, if not more, accidents on that bridge.

Well, y'all, yes and no... There are several built in hazards with metal. Metal flexes in ways that concrete reenforced roadway doesn't. Metal is quickly rubbed smooth, so the tire grabbing qualitys are lost very fast.
Metal get's fatigue with heavy use, becomes "lead like" and even cracks like glass. Modern concrete surfaces can be made as light or close to it, California started a program of scarfing the concrete for drainage years ago, and today it is pretty common place in highway construction. There is a machine that can retro-scarf any road not already done. The main danger with roadways, more so on grades, is when it FIRST starts to rain or the rain is light. This is just enough to "float" the oil and gas on the pavement. It is a potential deadly condition on every road, everywhere including on the metal surfaces of a grating. This time, I think they did it right... Year end numbers will tell the story.

Ocklawaha