A company has been hired to recommend a permanent fix to the last remaining Alachua County road closed because of Hurricane Irma.
A stretch of Northeast 21st Street between Northeast 156th and 192nd avenues near New Life Christian Center Church in Monteocha has been unpassable since the road collapsed into a canal after Irma passed through the county Sept. 11.
"The collapse was caused by the excessive rains of Hurricane Irma," County Engineer Ramon Gavarrete said.
The county will spend roughly $1.5 million to repair the road, with either one large box culvert or several box culverts, Gavarrete said. Culverts allow water to flow under roads.
The county expects at least 75 percent of the project cost will be reimbursed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Gavarrete said.
A national company with a local office, DRMP Inc., has been hired by the county to do a hydraulic assessment of the canal and make recommendations for a permanent fix, he said.
Repairs should be completed by year’s end, Gavarrete said.
Skid marks are visible on the road from the north headed south, where it appears a driver or two may have had to hit their brakes to avoid running into the collapsed road.
A county public works crew went to the site Tuesday morning to replace defective barricades with good barricades that warn the public of the road closure, Gavarrete said.
The barricades are crucial to keeping drivers safe, said Bill McLeod, 69, who lives less than 2 miles from the bridge.
"I was afraid someone was going to drive down here and end up driving in that hole there," said McLeod, who has lived near the bridge since the early 2000s.
Gavarette said to his knowledge, the county has no records of crashes at the site.
With the reopening of County Road 236 a couple weeks ago, Northeast 21st Street in Monteocha is the only county road still closed as a result of Irma, Gavarrete said.
McLeod, who rides his bike to the site occasionally to see what's happening there, said local residents, especially those who attend churches in the area, will greatly appreciate the road's reopening.
"A lot of people use this road to get to church and to get to their homes, and I know they can’t wait until it is repaired," McLeod said.