WGI was part of a design-build team that successfully replaced and restored the historic US 17 Main Street Bridge over Hogans Creek in downtown Jacksonville, Florida. Designed in the early 1900s by famed architect Henry Klutho, the bridge is a contributing element to the Springfield Historic District, which is on the National Register of Historic Places. Our design-build team provided innovation, expedited plans delivery, permitting, and accelerated project completion to reopen this high-volume roadway to vehicle and pedestrian traffic. Through numerous unforeseen challenges, the team delivered the project 49 days early, earning an incentive bonus, while restoring history.

Impetus for this emergency bridge replacement design-build was a semi-annual bridge inspection, which revealed large cracks in the main load-carrying member, requiring the bridge to be closed for safety reasons. The design-build team overcame numerous unforeseen conditions and challenges, including the discovery of century-old trolley tracks and paver bricks under the road, a deep and previously unknown void under the road, contaminated soil, vibration-sensitive adjacent historic structures, and an existing AT&T duct bank.

Innovative Solutions

• WGI designed a new, longer bridge spanning the existing creek bulkhead to maintain the existing hydraulic opening, resulting in faster permitting/construction time.
• Preserving the structure’s historic heritage, requiring rehabilitated features replaced in their original locations. WGI’s geospatial team used LiDAR to scan the site in pre- and post-condition, verifying precise placement of historic features.
• Cured-in-place pipe repair (trenchless rehab method) was used in lieu of total reconstruction to repair leaking drainage pipes.
• WGI designed a permanent stainless-steel support system to allow the existing utilities duct bank to remain, eliminating delays or outages that could have been caused by its relocation.
• lieu of the standard 30-foot approach slabs, 20-foot approaches were used to match existing conditions.

This project has won four awards, including DBIA’s National Award of Excellence in the Rehabilitation, Renovation and/or Restoration Category and ACEC-Florida’s Engineering Excellence Honor Award for Surveying and Mapping Technology. In addition, repair and restoration of the bridge did not alter its historical design aesthetics, its function, or use of Confederate Park in the Springfield Historic District where it is located.