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Marty Offline OP
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Barry Bowen Bridge
Concerns about the deterioration of the Sir Barry Bowen bridge in San Pedro town are being addressed by the Town Council. Love TV's Maria Novelo has the details in the following report.

LOVETV


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Marty Offline OP
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Bridge in Dire Need of Repairs

Listening to the concerns of some residents who say that the bridge is structurally unsafe and needs to be replaced, Mayor Daniel Guerrero and Deputy Mayor Severo Guerrero paid a visit to the structure on Saturday, April 14, 2012, along with contractor and engineer of Medina's Construction who was responsible of erecting the bridge.

Click here for the rest of the story and more pictures in the Ambergris Today

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odd that the bridge rusted... who woulda thought?


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confused Yeah, that's a real mystery, the rust, that is.

Joined: Mar 2012
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We all know what the problem is. All bridges must be maintained.
Unfortunately the money to maintain the bridge went into a condo project downtown.

Good news is it looks like the new Mayor is on it.
I saw some engineers out yesterday taking measuments.

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Unfortunately when Barry Bowen died, so did the bridge maintenance. While he was alive, he had it sandblasted and repaired and painted every 6 months or so.


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How much (%) of the Tolls go directly to the ongoing bridge maintenance?

And if not 100%.... where does the money go?


It's rarely rocket science, it's usually just math: then again if you can't do the math.......
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AND - How much of this problem can be assigned to the government not keeping their promise to not let anyything larger than a golf cart cross?
When something is built considering a certain load limit it is criminal to ignore that. Would the building department allow buildings to be constructed thus?
Now we all have to pay for the concessions allowed friends and family.
So why am I not surprised?


Harriette
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Engineers recommend urgent repairs on Sir Barry Bowen Bridge
[Linked Image]
From walking across the bridge, one can easily view the deplorable condition of the bridge, Engineer Walker stated; "The condition of the bridge looks very bad. In-fact, I would almost say alarming. But that's just appearance wise. The main structure of the bridge is in very good condition, however. And the amount of maintenance needed on the main structure beams and elements is pretty minimal. The problem is the deck. The deck is as you can see, very badly corroded and we'll need to be completely replaced. That's for a variety of reasons of course. This is because of the salt air but it's also because of the build up of sand that you can see on a lot of the membranes here. The sand acts like an abrasive fit. It takes off any kind of a coating that you would want to put onto the steel to protect it, and once you take off the protective coating, the rust sets in very quickly."

In speaking of where the original contractor went wrong, Walker stated; "I don't think it's the contractor that went wrong. I think it was partly myself to blame, as I was employed as the designer. We did know how severe the salt was going to be, but what we didn't predict was how badly the blowing sand was going to affect it. The sand, combined with the wheels of the golf carts and other vehicles basically stripped the coating off of the deck. And then of course once you don't have the protection on the steel then you see the rusts very quickly. There are solutions, I mean we could have gone to stainless steel but then the bridge might have been three or four times the cost it was, and it wouldn't have been affordable."

This time around, the engineer has suggested a more durable solution that is light weight, cost effective and requires minimal maintenance. "We are looking at other materials now that will not corrode; such as hardwood and fiberglass, different types of plastics. That's what we're going to try and I think this time with a bit of thought it's going to give a much longer life." When asked whether concrete would be a feasible option, Engineer Wagner stated, "The problem with putting a concrete deck on this bridge is the weight factor as concrete is very heavy and this bridge was never designed for that. What we want to try is to keep the solution as lightweight as possible, consistent with enough strength to take the weight of the vehicles. We are looking at fiberglass and timber at the moment."

Click here for the rest of the story and more pictures in the San Pedro Sun



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