 - State may pay to remove old Cooper River Bridges_files/archives_title.gif) |
 - State may pay to remove old Cooper River Bridges_files/spacer.gif){kind=spacer} |
|
|
|
| |||
|
Posted on Thu, Dec. 02, 2004 | | |
| |||
|
State may pay to remove old Cooper River Bridges Associated Press CHARLESTON, S.C. - As work on the most expensive bridge project in South Carolina history nears completion, the state may have to pay the $40 million to remove the bridges it will replace - the aging, twin spans that now cross the Cooper River. The $632 million Ravenel Bridge linking Charleston and Mount Pleasant is scheduled for completion next year. The state Transportation Department then has six months to tear down the existing bridges but has not been able to find any other source of money for that work. The department is preparing to advertise for bids on the demolition. If the state has to pay the $40 million, it would reduce the department's new construction budget by 20 percent, leaving only $160 million for projects next year. The lost money would pay for widening 10 miles of two-lane road to five lanes. "We are still hoping for appropriations from Congress, and will still anticipate that will happen," said Bobby Clair, the department engineer overseeing the new bridge construction. "Right now we are committed to removing the bridges as soon as possible out of the neighborhoods and improving the width of the shipping channel. That means the DOT will take care of the entire cost," he said. The U.S. Coast Guard requires the old bridges be removed quickly to increase the clearance for the shipping channel. Much of the old bridges' concrete and steel will be sunken offshore for artificial fishing reefs. But Clair said bidders on the demolition will also be asked for estimates on the costs of recycling some of the material. Bob Martore, the manager of the state Department of Natural Resources' artificial reef program, estimated 84 acres of artificial reef could be created from material from the old bridges. But he said the Transportation Department will look at the cost figures. "The DOT's main concern is money and they could recoup some of their money by letting the contractor recycle some of the steel," he said. "It is simply an act of weighing the long-term benefits versus the immediate return." He estimated fishermen and divers using the new reefs would pour a total of about $2 million a year into the economies of coastal communities. --- Information from: The Post and Courier, http://www.charleston.net/ | |||