I-75 overpass now open to traffic

RIDGE MANOR -- Two weeks after a tractor trailer ripped a gaping hole into an overpass of the I-75 thruway, quick construction work has brought the bridge back to normal.

The bridge is now structurally sound and all lanes are open for holiday traffic, said Kris Carson, a spokesman for the Florida Department of Transportation.

The newly reconstructed I-75 overpass. [Florida Department of Transportation]

The mishap, in which driver William Lindsay of Brooksville was not charged, happened Tuesday, Dec. 9 on the eastbound lanes of State Road 50.

The Florida Highway Patrol, which investigated, said an empty trailer bed on Lindsay's 1991 Mack truck suddenly rose and smashed two concrete beams supporting the overpass. The FHP concluded its report without explaining why the trailer rose into the air.

The overpass reopened on Wednesday.

Carson said Lindsay's employer, W. Clyde Daniel Construction, must pay $500,000 to reimburse subcontractor Infrastructure Corporation of America, which carried out the work for the state.

Luis Perez, Times staff writer