Royal Park Temporary Bascule Design-Build Bridge

Innovation and ingenuity helped PCL's Civil Southeast district and designer A.G. Lichtenstein & Associates (AGL) secure this Florida Department of Transportation's (FDOT) design-build bridge project. In October 1999 PCL-AGL was one of three contractor-designer teams short-listed by the FDOT to submit design-build proposals for the temporary 1,200-foot bascule bridge over the Intracoastal Waterway between West Palm Beach and The Town of Palm Beach. It was an emergency situation. The teams had just over one month to prepare conceptual designs, technical proposals and pricing for fast-track design and construction. The goal was to get traffic off the existing failing bridge and on to the new temporary bridge as quickly as possible. Together, PCL-AGL designed a steel space frame to support the bascule leafs on the temporary bridge. The very aggressive 12-month schedule, included floating the bascule leaf components from the existing structure using the tides for lifting, eliminating the cost of renting a large water borne crane. The project was awarded the 2001 best design-build project in the civil sector (under $15 million) by the Design-Build Institute of America.