The bridge goes up — and come April 12, that bridge crossing the Intracoastal Waterway on Camino Real is expected to stay up for a year or more while undergoing $8.9 million in renovations and repairs.
Like so many fabled antiques that reach the noble age of 80, it needs work. This will be an inconvenience for the 7,600 drivers who cross the two-lane span every day, not to mention the unknown number of walkers, runners and bicyclists using its steel sidewalks. And it will be a surprise to those who haven’t heard the news.
The Camino Real bridge is one of three in the county deemed “structurally deficient” by the state. The other two are the Southern Boulevard bridge between West Palm Beach and Palm Beach, and the U.S. 1 bridge in Jupiter.
For its $8.9 million the contractor, Kiewit Infrastructure South of Broward County, will widen both the fixed and bascule parts of the bridge, renovate and replace the fender system, install new mechanical equipment, reconstruct the approaches and sidewalks, and make minor drainage improvements. And then they’ll move the bridge tender’s house from the south to north side at the east end. What they can’t improve is the bridge’s long and curious history. Its three names, for example.
Ask any local and you’ll no doubt hear it called “the Camino Real bridge.” Pause to admire the large plaque at the east end of the north concrete rail and you’ll be told you’re about to cross the “Boca Raton Club Bridge.”
But take the time to crouch low and ponder one of two smaller, nearly hidden plaques at either end and you will learn that you are, in fact, about to traverse the “Clarence H. Geist Memorial Bridge.”
Credit Ron.Hayes
