PEOPLE OF INTEREST
The BRIDGE BUILDER
BY GREG GARDNER
AAfter 38 years of building and
72
rebuilding bridges on the Treasure
Coast, George Denti hopes to oversee
one more project before he hangs up
his hardhat and picks up a fishing rod.
“It has been a blessing that I have been
involved in the building of these five bridges
less than 30 miles from my home,” said Denti,
who lives west of Fort Pierce. He recently
oversaw completion for contractor Cardno of
the Veterans Memorial Bridge linking Stuart
and Palm City at Indian Street. Cardno hopes
to win the bid to construct the West Virginia
Avenue bridge over the St. Lucie River in Port
St. Lucie and Denti would oversee the $100
million project.
During his career as bridge builder, Denti has
supervised a quarter-billion dollars in construction.
All of the bridges were designed to last
100 years without significant maintenance.
While there is inherent danger in lifting
100-ton objects, Denti said careful planning
and attention to detail minimizes the risk to
workers. “With today’s safeguards and the
safety culture that has been developed in the
industry, accidents are preventable,” he said.
The most difficult project was the Roosevelt
Bridge because traffic had to be able to flow
on U.S. 1 during construction. The massive
segments had to be transported with Florida
Highway Patrol escorts one at time from
Midway Road in St. Lucie County to Stuart.
FDOT repaved the road so the segments could
be shipped by special truck to Stuart.
There was quite a scare when a 90-ton segment
fell 40 feet to the ground, smashing into
pieces no larger than a card table. Denti said
no one was hurt, but an electrician was sent to
the hospital and sedated. He was sure someone
had been killed.
The only fatality in all of the bridge projects
happened during construction of the Evans
Crary Bridge when a worker was electrocuted
while working on lighting for the bridge.
After Hurricane Frances washed way the
temporary bridge at the Jensen Beach Causeway,
FDOT made a mad dash to rebuild the
temporary bridge before Hurricane Jeanne
slammed the area again, just three weeks later.
“The Little Mud Creek Bridge (on Hutchinson
Island) was washed out by Frances at the
same time Jensen was damaged and impassable,”
said Denti. “We did an emergency
rebuild, a 15-day job with a bonus if it was
open in 12 days. We got it done. Jeanne hit the
next day and the repaired bridge held up. It
George Denti, whose
bridge-building career has
spanned almost 40 years,
hopes to oversee one more
project before retiring.
>> GREG GARDNER