JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Remember the traffic backups on May 27 when problems with an expansion joint caused an eight-hour shutdown of all southbound lanes of Interstate 295 on the Buckman Bridge?
The Florida Department of Transportation sure does after drivers had to detour for miles while temporary repairs were made to the expansion joint just days before Memorial Day weekend.
So the department wants to make sure every driver knows that workers begin permanent repairs to the southbound interstate span this weekend and will continue over the next five weekends.
That means two of the four southbound lanes will be shut down from 9 p.m. Friday nights until 5 a.m. each following Monday. The two other lanes will remain open during each weekend repair. But the Transportation Department will also close the Roosevelt Boulevard ramps onto southbound Interstate 295, so expect some traffic delays again, department spokesman Hampton Ray said.
"We certainly hope it won't be as bad [as May 27], but we definitely anticipate some significant delays for folks," Ray said. "We want to make sure that drivers plan ahead. ... We have really tried to overcommunicate this to the public."
The Florida Highway Patrol first noticed damage early on May 27 to the interlocking steel expansion joints at the top of the southbound lanes of the span. The Transportation Department decided to do a full inspection and found a finger joint on the steel strip that stretches across all lanes was protruding a bit.
As workers laid temporary steel plating over the entire strip, the eight-hour closure forced detours of traffic onto Blanding Boulevard from I-295.
An estimated 125,500 vehicles a day use that interstate span, according to the Transportation Department's average traffic count website. That means thousands of drivers who needed to get across the St. Johns River were forced to head south to Florida 16 and the Shands Bridge or north to Interstate 95 and the Fuller Warren Bridge.
The Buckman Bridge rehabilitation of the finger joint is expected to be complete in August, with inspectors continuing to monitor the temporary repair until the rehabilitation is complete. All lanes will be open during peak weekday hours.
The overhead message signs on I-295 have been displaying information about the bridge lane closures, Ray said. Drivers can also check up on any road issues ahead of time by logging into fl511.com, which offers real-time traffic issues and live traffic camera views of state roads.
The repair work was scheduled to begin last weekend. But Tropical Storm Elsa's heavy rains caused the delay.
dscanlan@jacksonville.com, (904) 359-4549
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