Video: Pier Explosion Kicks Off Bayway Bridge Reconstruction

PINELLAS COUNTY, FL — With a dramatic underwater explosion, the Florida Department of Transportation kicked off the Pinellas Bayway Bridge replacement project Tuesday afternoon.

After closing the bridge to vehicles, pedestrians and bicyclists and ensuring that no dolphins or manatees were in the explosion zone, the FDOT's contractor, American Bridge, demolished the underwater pier for the old Pinellas Bayway Bridge linking Isla Del Sol and Tierra Verde islands.

The old two-lane 2-mile bridge was an outdated bascule design with a pivoting section that raised and lowered using counterweights.

The FDOT is replacing it with a two-lane, high-level, fixed bridge between from Yacht Club Lane to State Road 682.

The FDOT is also repaving the existing State Road 679 roadway between State Road 682 and the new bridge and replacing a seawall south of the bridge along SR 679 in Pinellas County.

The project will also include the construction of a 12-foot-wide shared-use path on the east side and a 5-foot-wide concrete sidewalk on the west side of SR 679.

Other improvements include the addition of a roundabout at Madonna Boulevard/1st Street.

The $56.8 million project is expected to be completed in the fall.