'Long time coming': Fort Meade celebrates construction of new bridge over Peace River

FORT MEADE — Soon after he received his driver’s license, James Watts had an experience familiar to many residents of Fort Meade. Watts, now the city’s mayor, recalled being pushed into the railway of the U.S. 98 bridge across the Peace River while driving across the narrow span.

“I know people that won't go past — they’ll travel a 30-mile, out-of-the-way detour to get around it,” he said.

Watts and others in Fort Meade are now celebrating as construction has begun on a replacement for the 92-year-old John Singletary Bridge. The new bridge promises wider lanes and a higher base that will make it less prone to flooding.

Watts joined other politicians and officials from the Florida Department of Transportation for a dedication event Friday afternoon at the Fort Meade Outdoor Recreation Area, slightly east of the bridge.

“I think the theme of this is, ‘It’s been a long time coming for us,’” Florida Rep. Melony Bell, R-Fort Meade, said in her address at the ceremony.

Fort Meade residents and local elected officials have sought for decades to replace the bridge, and the Department of Transportation long ago approved the concept, but the project languished for lack of dedicated funding. Bell credited L.K. Nandam, Secretary for DOT’s District 1 in Bartow, with finding the money to finally move the $19 million project forward.

Bell, a Fort Meade native, joined the City Commission in 1996 and learned that the bridge replacement was listed on the DOT’s five-year plan. She said the project has continually been pushed back since then.

Though construction is finally under way, Fort Meade residents will need to remain patient. Completion of the bridge is scheduled for late 2025 or early 2026.

Wider lanes, safer sidewalks

Lori Albritton, district director of transportation support for the DOT, noted that when the bridge opened in 1931, the most popular car was the Ford Model A — less than 6 feet wide. The best-selling vehicle now is Ford F-Series trucks, with widths of up to 8½ feet, not including mirrors.

The DOT conducted a project development and environment study between 2013 and 2018 and determined that the bridge was obsolete, said John Kubler, director of transportation operations for the agency’s District 1 office.

The current bridge, located at the eastern edge of Fort Meade heading toward Frostproof has two lanes of 10 feet each and a narrow sidewalk at the north edge.

The replacement bridge will feature 12-foot lanes, plus a 12-foot, multi-use path on the south side and a 6-foot sidewalk on the north side and 7-foot bicycle lanes in both directions. The design calls for a vertical, concrete barrier to separate the vehicle lanes from the multi-use path.

The path will continue beyond the existing bridge and link the Peace River Trail on the north and south sides of U.S. 98, according to DOT’s description. Bell expressed hope that the trail will eventually form a connection of the SUN Trail Network from the Fort Fraser Trail in Bartow to Charlotte County.

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U.S. 98 is the only major east-west route between State Road 60 and State Road 64 to the south, and the bridge receives about 13,000 passenger vehicles and 1,200 commercial vehicles daily, according to the DOT. During a media opportunity Friday afternoon, traffic flowed steadily over the bridge, including plenty of semi-trailer trucks.

Polk County Commissioner Bill Braswell, speaking at the dedication, said he avoided crossing the bridge, instead driving on County Road 640 through Homeland and winding south to connect with U.S. 98 east of the span.

“I'm sure everybody here has approached that bridge and seen a fruit truck coming from the other direction, and it's just dread,” Braswell said. “You’re hanging on the steering wheel and you hope you get across.”

Watts, a retired Florida DOT employee of nearly 40 years, recalled seeking to use fear as a motivator in lobbying elected officials for the money to replace the span.

“I took some legislators down across that bridge that weren’t familiar with it, and they were quite concerned themselves to be going across it, especially when I waited for a semi to be coming,” Watts said.

Less prone to flooding

The first phase of the project, restricted to the area south of the existing bridge, included the clearing of numerous trees and the removal of overhead power lines. Electrical lines were temporarily attached to the current span and will be buried underground during construction.

A crew from SEMA Construction, the lead contractor, toiled at the site Friday afternoon, as a worker operated a towering red crawler crane.

Traffic will continue using the current bridge throughout the first construction phase. In phase two, eastbound traffic will shift to the new span while westbound traffic uses the original bridge. For phase three, the westbound travel lane shifts to the final alignment.

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The contractor will drive 112 concrete piles to support the new structure, which will be longer and higher than the current span, making it less vulnerable to flooding from the Peace River. When Hurricane Ian dumped heavy rain in Polk County last year, the bridge was partially submerged for a few days.

The bridge is named for John Singletary, a Fort Meade native who served on the Polk County Commission from 1927 to 1931 and two of his granddaughters — Mandy Singletary and Cynthia McGuirt — were present for the dedication.

The DOT plans to preserve certain elements of the bridge, which Kubler said has historic significance under the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966. The existing handrail will be removed, with sections displayed in the city, given to the Fort Meade Historical Society and exhibited at the Fort Meade Outdoor Recreation Area, according to Kevin Morrisey, an operations engineer with DOT’s District 1 office.

A metal dedication plaque affixed to the west end of the bridge will be refurbished and placed at the entrance to the recreation area, Morrisey said.

Watts said the bridge will create an economic boost for Fort Meade and southern Polk County by facilitating the east-west flow of commercial traffic.

“This is going to be such an economic impact — and for a lot of pedestrians who traveled out on 98, peace of mind,” he said.

Gary White can be reached at gary.white@theledger.com or 863-802-7518. Follow on X @garywhite13.

This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Fort Meade celebrates as work commences to replace 92-year-old bridge