By Larry Barszewski
The George Bush Boulevard in Delray Beach is able to raise and lower its spans again after being stuck in the open position for the past eight weeks.
The drawbridge has been deemed safe and re-opened Friday afternoon, April 29, Palm Beach County officials said.
“All replacement components have been fabricated and installed. Three weeks of extensive testing and an inspection period followed while the mechanics of the bridge were continuously adjusted and fine-tuned,” the county announcement said. “Intermittent bridge closures are to be expected as continued monitoring is planned.”
The bridge has been unavailable to vehicular traffic since March 3, when it malfunctioned during an evening opening because of damage to a main shaft and gear section of the drive system. Boat traffic continued unimpeded.
A replacement shaft for the 1949 bascule bridge was fabricated March 11 and tested with the existing gear, but a structural engineering consulting firm determined other drive shaft machinery components, including a damaged bearing, also needed to be replaced, causing the longer delay.
There could be a longer closure in the bridge’s future if the county determines the whole bridge needs to be replaced. After the March breakdown, county engineering and public works teams said they were considering the possibility of conducting a $1 million bridge replacement evaluation.
The broken bridge brought a visit from U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who stood in front of the bridge March 19 and talked about how the $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill passed by Congress in November could be used to help with such needed repairs across Florida and the country.
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