Pile Hammer Bruce SGH-3013 Piling Hammer Completed Pile Driving Successfully at Hathaway Bridge, USA

The Bruce SGH-3013 Pile Hammer successfully completed the pile driving of Hathaway Bridges at FL, USA

By Florida State University College of Engineering, Fall Semester 2008

A Thesis submitted to the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science and The Office of Graduates Studies has verified and approved.

History of Hathaway Bridge
The First Hathaway Bridge was built in 1929 and was originally known as the St. Andrews Bay Bridge.
It was later renamed The Hathaway Bridge after Franz Hathaway,whowas Chairman of Florida’s State Road Department, the predecessor to the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT).

For its time the St. Andrews Bridge was a remarkable achievement in engineering. It utilized 16 Parker through-truss spans that were 160 to 225 feet in length and 31 to 38 feet high with a 20 foot-wide roadway.

To 14 accommodate shipping traffic the bridge encompassed a 200 foot long Warren through truss “swing span” that would open and close as needed. (Bridgepros)
By the mid 1950’s the Bridge was becoming functionally obsolete and structurally deficient.
So in 1960 the second Hathaway Bridge was opened to the public, this new bridge was more than three times wider than the original with double the number of lanes on a 62 foot wide roadway, four 13-foot lanes with two in each direction of traffic.

However, like many other bridges built in the 1950’s the Hathaway II Bridge as its affectionately known was built with a sense of practicality and economy.
It was a utilitarian structure with three foot outside shoulders, a four foot raised center median,no pedestrian access, no dedicated bicycle access, and no “refuge lane” for broken down vehicles.

A small accident or a stalled vehicle could create huge traffic snarls and bring traffic to a standstill. (Bridgepros)
With the population boom in Florida after 1960 the Hathaway II would become obsolete by the 1980’s. In 1970, an average 15,600 vehicles were crossing the bridge 15 each day.
The number doubled by 1982 and approached 57,000 by 1998 By the late 1990’s after many failed efforts to alleviate the traffic with trolleys and ferry boats, Panama City wanted to attach a bicycle and pedestrian structure to the bridge but when the price tag jumped $3 million to $8 million dollars the idea was dropped.
So in 1997 the Bay County Bridge Authority, the Panama City Metropolitan Planning Organization and the Bay County Tourist Development Council all voted to support the construction of a new bridge.

In 1999 the third Hathaway Bridge came to life as theFlorida State Legislature appropriated over $80 million dollars for the construction of the new bridge.
By 2020 an estimated 97,700 vehicles will be using the bridge daily.(Bridgepros)