The Escambia Bay Bridge is a six-lane freeway bridge that carries Interstate 10 across Escambia Bay near Pensacola. The original four-lane bridge opened in 1968. It consisted of twin spans of two lanes each with no shoulders and was heavily damaged during Hurricane Ivan in 2004. The storm surge knocked a total of 58 spans off the eastbound and westbound bridges and misaligned another 66 spans, causing the bridge to close to traffic in both directions. The original bridge, with its temporary spans, reopened in November 2004 with traffic reduced to one lane in each direction while the new bridge was constructed which began in 2006. Unlike the previous bridge, the new bridge features a total of six lanes (three eastbound and three westbound) as well as shoulders, modern barrier walls and lighting. At a cost of $243,000,000 this new bridge towers 25 feet above the water hopefully eliminating tidal surges that aided in the destruction of its predecessor which stood only 12 feet about the bay. The big winner here may have been the contractor who earn a 10 million dollar bonus for finishing the east bound lanes 11 days early what tough negotiators we employ here in Florida. read more