Drivers crossing Jacksonville’s Hart Bridge may have noticed something happening among the cables and beams of its green span over the St. Johns River.
According to the Florida Department of Transportation, the workers climbing the 3,844-foot-long truss bridge are part of a team of inspectors doing a regular checkup.
The 56-year-old bridge connects Jacksonville's Downtown and Southside and is named after Isaiah Hart, the city's founder. State officials say its bridges get inspected at a minimum of every two years. That means a “top-to-bottom” look, FDOT spokesman Hampton Ray said.
FDOT has a team of in-house bridge inspectors who handle the routine inspections, FDOT spokesman Hampton Ray said. They document needed maintenance items and review previous work on the structure.
"This routine bridge inspection allows FDOT to identify and prioritize maintenance items and plan for long-term rehabilitation projects," Ray said.
The inspection began Saturday, as workers park at the Southside end of the span and then walk up to connect safety lines to the cables to do their job as traffic passes.
The inspection should take about two weeks, Ray said.
