Special Reports

MIAMI (CBS4) ― More than one billion federal stimulus dollars are scheduled to fund 700 different transportation projects here in Florida. $1.347 Billion of that money will fund 521 different Highway and Bridge Projects. But the CBS4 I-Team wanted to know if this money will actually be sued to help repair bridges that are in critical need of attention.

CBS4 I-Team investigator Stephen Stock discovered that the results of this federal stimulus money on reducing the list or troubled bridges are mixed.

Except for the obvious sign announcing the bridge closing for the month of May, there are few clues to passing motorists that major repair work is underway underneath and along the side of 82 year-old Venetian Causeway in Miami.

Even though traffic was allowed to resume crossing the Venetian Causeway on June 1, 2009, the work on the 12 different bridges that make up the entire length of the causeway from Miami to Miami Beach continues. The repairs include refurbishing or replacing arch beams, deck slabs, piers and bolts and metal beams as well as new concrete where needed.

It is a series of bridges that the I-Team first showed you back in March, 2009, to be in desperate need of repair. All you had to do was get a boat up close to the bridge and see for yourself.

That's just what the I-Team did.

And when you get up close you can see the problems. It is easy to see and even touch the cracking concrete underneath. This leaves exposed and rusting rebar sticking out of the concrete. This kind of disrepair can be found all along this bridge.

With nearly thirty thousand cars passing over it every day, the Venetian Causeway is one of 40 South Florida bridges that the I-Team first reported were rated by structural engineers as having sufficiency rating of "50" or less.

In simple terms, engineers consider the Venetian and 39 other bridges in our area to be as bad or worse, structurally, than the bridge that collapsed over the Mississippi River in Minneapolis back in August, 2007.

The I-Team took a close look at each of the bridges. We walked them. We crawled under them. We examined them closely. We reviewed their inspection records.

And it didn't take an engineering expert to see the bridges need serious repair. We saw repairs going on in some locations, like the one where dozens of huge, wide concrete supports were in various stages of poor conditions and being repaired with concrete patches. At other bridges, there appears to be no attention, no repair work.

The I-Team found extensive repairs, perhaps even troubling repair work (because it underscores how badly the structure had deteriorated) under a bridge which was rated by engineers as "36.8" sufficiency rating. Remember anything rated "50" or below needs to be replaced or repaired right away.

And if you think this isn't serious, consider the bridge where we found all the supports crumbling and cracking holds up the east bound lanes of Interstate 395 passing over our heads in downtown Miami. State inspection records show that seventy thousand cars and trucks crossing over that bridge every day.

The Venetian Causeway was in such poor shape it had been slated to be fixed for some time. So, the I-Team learned, the $11 Million Venetian bridge repair project will not be getting any federal stimulus money.

"We got approximately 24.7 million dollars (in Federal Stimulus dollars for road projects)," said Leandro Oña, chief of Miami-Dade Public Works. "And that (money) is being used for other projects but not for bridges because of the requirements placed on how you use the money."

But the I-Team wanted to know if any of the $1.35 Billion in federal stimulus money going to Florida infrastructure is being used to fix some of the other troubled bridges in South Florida.

I-Team investigator Stock Stephen put the question to the man in charge of the entire state of Florida's road and bridge projects.

"You think this might get some of these bridges at least from the city county off the list?" Stock asked Kevin Thibault, Assistant Secretary for Engineering and Operations for Florida's Department of Transportation out of Tallahassee.

"That's right," Thibault said. "We're talking with them (local officials.) And we're saying 'Why can't you work on this deficient bridge?' (We're asking them) 'What is holding up that ability to do that?'"

But the I-Team discovered that while rules and procedures may be preventing some localities from using the federal money to fix troubled bridges, the federal dollars are being used in other areas.

An examination of Federal Stimulus records by the CBS4 I-Team found at least a half dozen bridges from Golden Beach to Miami Beach, from Brickell Key to Geiger Key that will now be repaired or even rebuilt using $3,201,663.62 in federal stimulus dollars.

"The local agencies are going to benefit from it because it's federal funding that comes in." said Frank Guyamier, director of bridge inspections for Florida's Department of Transportation District 6 office, which covers Miami-Dade and Monroe Counties.

"And it (the federal stimulus money) is going to allow them to do if they have any bridge projects that's waiting for funding," Guyamier said.

But the I-Team also discovered that even after all this money is allocated to these projects, it still leaves at least three dozen bridges on the list of troubled bridges. These are bridges that will remain in critical need of repair.

I-Team investigator Stephen Stock asked "These problems, they become issues that may impact safety if not addressed now or soon?"

"Absolutely," Florida DOT's Frank Guyamier replied. "Absolutely. If you were to neglect them then you would have a safety problem."

Because bridges are always at the mercy of the sun, storms and saltwater of South Florida, experts say they are continuously wearing down and wearing out.

These experts believe there will always be a need for more money for more bridge repair. And they say there will always be a list of bridges that are troubled but haven't been fixed quite yet.

They just hope that with this influx of federal stimulus money the localities in charge of some of the bridges can make that list of those in critical need of repair shorter.

(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

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