The Douglas Stenstrom Bridge, also known as the Osteen Bridge, is a steel-and-concrete bridge located in Indian Mound Village, Florida, east of Sanford, that carries State Road 415 over the St. Johns River. The current bridge was completed in 1977, replacing a 1920s vintage bridge that was considered the most dangerous in the state; a second parallel span was completed in 2015.
History
The original Osteen Bridge, a hand-turned swing bridge,[1] was built in the 1920s;[2] it was rebuilt in 1947. The bridge is located just upstream from Lake Monroe,[3] crossing the Indian Mound Slu portion of the river between Lake Monroe and Lake Jesup; by the 1970s the original bridge, only 14 feet (4.3 m) in width, proved dangerous and too narrow for continued use, being described as "the worst bridge in Florida" in 1972.[4] In 1973, mats of invasive water hyacinth caused damage to the bridge's structure.[5]
An accident in 1974 that killed five people when their van was run off the bridge by a truck gave the final impetus to the construction of a new bridge, replacing the dangerous older span.[6] The new Osteen Bridge was constructed starting in 1975, with work continuing through 1976 and early 1977;[1] constructed by the Houdaille-Duval-Wright company of Jacksonville,[7] the project cost approximately $2.6 million USD.[1] The new bridge opened in April 1977, and was officially named the Douglas Stenstrom Bridge in 1978, after a Florida state senator Douglas Stenstrom who had pushed for the completion of the project.[2] Part of the previous bridge was left in place, serving as a fishing pier.[8]
Repairs to the bridge were undertaken during 2011.[9] A second parallel bridge was completed in 2015 to support the widening of SR 415 to 2 lanes in each direction.[10]
