Broad Avenue Bridge demolition contract awarded

A Tampa, Fla., company has officially been awarded the contract to demolish and rebuild the Broad Avenue Bridge, Georgia DOT officials say.

PCL Civil Constructors Inc., of Tampa, have been awarded the $11.8 million bid for the bridge, officials say.

The bridge was shutdown in 2009 by GDOT after divers discovered that chunks of the bridge’s concrete footings had eroded away making the bridge unsafe for pedestrian or vehicular traffic, they say.

A group of bridge preservationists have emerged to challenge the city of Albany and GDOT’s contentions on the bridge in hopes that the historic bridge can be saved and repurposed as a pedestrian bridge and park, similar to a project currently underway in Columbus.

As previously reported in The Herald, PCL Civil Constructors, Inc. is a wholly-owned subsidiary of PCL Construction Enterprises, Inc., with two office locations in the United States.

The company’s Civil Southeast office in Tampa, primarily serves the southeastern United States and performs more than $250 million worth of work annually.

While the company’s main focus is bridge construction, it also handles projects ranging from highway work to airport construction.

The company currently has seven active bridge projects in locations ranging from New Haven, Conn., to Freeport, Texas.

PCL’s bid came in higher than GDOT’s latest cost estimates by roughly $2.3 million. Despite this, the state seems poised to continue on the with the project, which could begin its demolition phase early this summer.