FDOT looking into Buckman Bridge design, safety

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The Buckman Bridge is the second busiest bridge in Jacksonville with 125,000 drivers crossing it each day.

The speed limit is 65 miles per hour but according to the Florida Department of Transportation, the average driver goes about 73 miles per hour.

Since 2009, there have been more than 1,200 crashes along that route from the San Jose interchange to the Roosevelt Boulevard interchange.

“Of that 1,201 you have 396 crashes on during that time frame specifically on the Buckman Bridge,” said FDOT spokesman Ron Tittle.

Tittle says they’re still investigating the bridge’s design to study whether or not changes need to be made. We’re told lowering the speed limit has been considered, but drivers like Kitty Conner feel it’s not enough.

“People hit that road and think it's the Daytona speedway,” said Conner.

Another issue they’re looking at is the side cover barriers.

In July Action News came to the Buckman to do the measurements ourselves, shortly after a vehicle hit the barrier and plummeted into the water. We found that the barriers are 1 inch above the state standard, but raising it is a highly debated topic.

“If you look at raising the concrete then they've got to consider what does the wind do with that if you raise the barriers,” said Tittle.

After Monday’s horrific crash that killed four people whose vehicle stalled on the Buckman Bridge, the FDOT engineers are looking at everything.

“They’ll pull up all the information they can gather to figure out the time of the crashes, where they were at specifically on the bridge, how does the wind play a role in all this, how would the design impact all this,” said Tittle.

The FDOT says their study won’t be complete for another four to five months.

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WJAX