MAX BREWER BRIDGE TOPS NATIONWIDE VOTE
By Space Coast Daily // November 19, 2012
Project Claims People's Choice Award
BREVARD COUNTY • TITUSVILLE, FLORIDA –In a surprise announcement, the A. Max Brewer Bridge project in Titusville was named the top vote-getter Sunday in a nationwide contest to determine which transportation project would be selected for the People’s Choice Award presented by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials.
The award was announced Sunday during the AASHTO’s annual conference in Pittsburgh.
According to the Florida Department of Transportation, Max Brewer Bridge received 331,198 votes out of more than 710,000 cast in the national competition. Votes were submitted during a month-long online voting poll.
The $44.8 million Max Brewer Bridge project was among 10 transportation projects from across the nation picked as finalists. The winner receives a $10,000 prize, which the state Department of Transportation will present at a later date to the state agency’s charity of choice.
Max Brewer Bridge’s closest competitor was California’s I-405/Sepulveda Pass Project — Mulholland Bridge Demolition, or “Carmageddon” as it became known.
Brevard County Public Works Director John Denninghoff said Brevard County initiated the project to replace the swing span Max Brewer Bridge, named in honor of Albert “Max” Brewer, a Titusville attorney in the 1950s who was killed in a private plane crash in 1966, with local funding to start the planning process, but credited legislators who were successful in getting state and federal funding to build it.
“We had a vision for that bridge 11 years ago to have it replaced and save the taxpayers a lot of money for maintenance, but also to create something special for the north end of the county,” Denninghoff said. “That movable bridge was special on its own, so we wanted something special to replace it with and we felt like we did it. It turned out extremely well. It’s been wonderful to see the people out there adopting that bridge as part of their exercise and recreational activities, and it’s also important as a reliable means to getting out to the commercial area and the Kennedy Space Center.”
