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DOT wants Pinellas to explain falling bridge chunks

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BY MARK DOUGLAS NEWS CHANNEL 8

The Tampa Tribune

Published: March 20, 2009

The state of Florida wants to know why Pinellas County failed to alert state engineers about a construction mishap involving a new bridge under construction.

More than 2,700 pounds of concrete rained to the ground in large chunks Feb. 6 at the new Belleair Causeway Bridge, but county engineers called the problem "spalling" - commonly used to describe flakes rather than chunks - and made no written reference to it at all until two weeks later.

The Florida Department of Transportation has called a halt to repair work until it gets a full report. Project engineers insist the structure is safe and Pinellas County still plans to open the new bridge to traffic at the end of next month.

But the lack of communication produced some heated discussion, according to information obtained by News Channel 8 under Florida's public records laws.

The bridge mishap and its aftermath were called a "developing mess" in an email to engineers March 5 from Lawrence Taylor, special projects administrator with the state Department of Transportation.

In a meeting of 15 engineers last week, DOT structures engineer Jose Danon fumed at Pinellas County and contractors for not alerting him to the problem.

"I wish you would have called me immediately," Danon said in an audio recording of that meeting. "For one reason, I wouldn't have allowed you, your decision wasn't good - to continue grouting tendons. We should have waited."

Pinellas County's Project Manager Tony Hornik shot back: "I just want you to know that I feel I strongly feel we acted responsibly and you've got an opportunity on a weekly basis to know what is going on, on this project."
Pinellas County spokesperson Meg Korakis told a reporter the county is under no obligation to communicate with the state on any set timetable, even though DOT acts as a watchdog for the federal money funding nearly half the $72 million project.
Danon said he didn't find out about the incident until Feb. 26 and he responded the next morning. Pinellas County says notice came sooner than that, though the county's versions conflict.

Robert Meador, division manager with county Public Works, said in a March 5 memo to DOT: "From what I understand Jose (Danon) was informed of the situation the day it occurred."

Korakis, the county spokeswoman, said project manager Hornik insists he called Danon "several days" after the incident.

The first written mention of the incident that was accessible to DOT is the reference to "spalling" in minutes of a meeting Feb. 18. DOT did not attend the meeting but Korakis said DOT received the minutes Feb. 23.

That's three days before DOT's Danon recalled getting notice but still more than two weeks after the incident.

Either way, Danon questioned how Pinellas engineers could describe the falling concrete as "spalling": "Never in my life would I have called that a spall. I don't know where you guys got that word. It's a humongo sic spall."

A consultant sent a preliminary report on the incident to DOT Feb. 26, but the project contractor sent it back because it didn't answer DOT questions in enough detail.

The mishap left a void about 10 feet across and six or more inches deep in the underside of the new bridge. The gaping hole exposed steel and steel tendons that strengthen concrete bridge sections when workers pull them tight, like beads on a string.

One thing troubling DOT is that contractor Johnson Brothers, with Pinellas County's blessing, continued tensioning the tendons and applied grout inside plastic tubes that contain them before alerting the state to the problem.

Last week county engineers told a reporter the concrete blew out when workers tensioned a kinked tendon. The records obtained by News Channel 8 say as many as two tendons may have "floated" out of alignment.

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