Wilson Pigott Bridge Retrofit

The Wilson Pigott Bridge (also locally known as the State Road 31 Bridge) is a small two-lanes bascule drawbridge located near Fort Myers shores in Lee Country, Florida. It is one of four drawbridges in Lee County. It is 27 feet tall.

As Senior Project Engineer Scott Case managed the rehabilitation of a 27 ft tall, two-lane drawbridge. The retrofit consisted of replacement of all mechanical, hydraulic, and electrical components, as well as replacing the stringers, cover plates, live load shoes, span locks, counterweights, bearing pads, and adding stiffener plates to the main leaves for beam strengthening.

Depending on the schedule, the bridge can be opened by horn signal (one long, one short) or by hailing the bridge tender on VHF Channel 09.

• Existing connections to all structural members consisted of over 2000 rivets that had to be replaced with high strength bolts and torqued to specifications.
• The bridge decking was replaced with new metal gauge cribbing and light-weight concrete.
• After completion, the structural components were carefully stripped off the existing lead-based paint and re-coated to meet new specifications.