JACKSONVILLE BEACH, Fla. – If you’ve ever driven to Jacksonville Beach on J. Turner Butler Boulevard, you’ve probably noticed it before.
While heading east, as you reach the bottom section of the JTB bridge over the Intracoastal, your car or truck suddenly starts to bounce like a Chevy Impala in a Snoop Dogg video.
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According to a 2014 post on Yelp, some locals have even given the bridge a nickname.
“To us 20+ year residents that cross it every day, we’ve affectionately referred to it as the ‘Whubba Whubba Bridge,’” user Martha G. wrote.
So, why does this bounce happen? Is it safe? And are there any plans to fix the issue?
Those are the questions News4JAX asked the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT).
An FDOT spokesman said the J. Turner Butler (SR 202) bridge over the Intracoastal Waterway, formerly the Arthur N. Sollee Bridge, was originally constructed by the Jacksonville Transit Authority (JTA) in the 1980s. The bridge was then transferred to FDOT for long-term maintenance — and the jarring bounce came with it.
“The depressions on portions of the bridge deck were present when the bridge was transferred to FDOT. The depressions on the deck likely occurred due to construction techniques employed during its initial build,” FDOT spokesman Hampton Ray said.
News4JAX followed up to ask about the “techniques” that caused these depressions, but Ray said that “since FDOT did not perform the work, it would be inappropriate for me to speak about the construction techniques that may or may not have been performed.”
It’s safe to say that whatever it was, it was probably a construction defect, not a feature.
In 2017, The Coastal wrote about the bridge and highlighted a 2010 article by Jeff Reece in The Florida Times-Union in which Reece wrote that the bumpy surface was likely an accident and JTA eventually sued the construction company to no avail. News4JAX tried to track down the lawsuit in court records and asked JTA about the construction company and the purported lawsuit, but we came up empty, which only adds to the bridge’s lore, in our opinion.
Still, FDOT said there are no structural or safety concerns with the roadway and there are no plans to alter the bridge deck at this time.
FDOT said it has “a robust bridge inspection program” and bridges owned and maintained by FDOT are inspected at a minimum every two years.
“During this inspection, bridges receive a thorough, top-to-bottom inspection by trained bridge inspectors and maintenance professionals. The bi-annual inspection is akin to a routine health physical to catalogue routine maintenance items and create a more predictable maintenance schedule. These bridge inspections are a critical component to ensure taxpayers receive the best value for their investments in infrastructure,” Ray said.
If a safety concern were found during a routine bridge inspection, FDOT said crews would immediately close the roadway until it could safely be reopened to traffic.
As with all roadways, FDOT said motorists are encouraged to drive the speed limit, secure any loads and never drive distracted.
So it looks like for now, the JTB bridge bounce is here to stay, destined to be just another one of many quirky features you will find while driving on Jacksonville’s vast roadway system.
