Florida is the second state, after California, with the most amount of bridges.  Being a relatively new state in regards to the influx of migration to the state happening past the air conditioning invention and mass production made it affordable enough for most residents to include air conditioning in their homes, Florida has grown exponentially and keeps on growing.  The weather and entertainment mix offer anyone a great place to call home or visit.

Being a new state, our bridges are newer in design and engineering and thus the need is greater in maintenance and retrofit than complete reconstruction.  Some bridges, mostly the older ones, are in need of urgent repairs or replacements and due to a growing demographic, we are always expanding our cities and constructing new bridges.

Florida has a long-term projection and needs to share the opportunity to welcome more residents.  Older people, with arthritis as an example, require the milder weather Florida offers all year long.  This makes the State of Florida a preferred choice for retirement for many northerner residents.

The bipartisan infrastructure bill recently delivered by the government, part of the Build Back Better Plan, intended to reinforce our infrastructure and provide jobs that enable living wages, has generated joyful applause by the community.  The fact that the government approved bill H.R.3684, showed the nation the capacity to understand the needs of the nation as a whole.  New bridges and existing bridges will be attended in order of importance and making them strong and efficient depends on the expertise in providing the bridge construction services by companies that use solid earthwork and pavement companies like Smith & Company, Inc., a Florida native construction company that has worked in the construction trade for almost 40 years helping Bridge contractors deliver solid solutions to our communities.

The D.O.T. (Department of Transportation) reported on January 14, 2022 “Historic Bridge Investment Under Bipartisan Infrastructure Law”, mentioning in detail the amount funded for bridge infrastructure and construction.  In 2022, The total amount that will be available to states, D.C. and Puerto Rico in Fiscal Year 2022 is $5.3 billion along with $165 million for tribes.  Florida cities and Florida counties will be able to use part of these funds to generate the so needed repairs and help with the new ones needed for the growing demand for newer better cities the State of Florida is facing.

As we build new bridges, repair, and retrofit to update older ones, we have now a new product that when mixed in the equation of infrastructure and body composition with the right metal alloys and concrete strength for reinforcements, can generate a longer life expectancy for the construction of bridges in our state.  Using composite products offers the capacity to elongate the life expectancy of every bridge in every county in Florida to up to 100 years, beating old bridge life expectancies by 25 years or more.

The Florida Department of Transportation has welcomed the opportunity to use FRP (Fiber-Reinforced Polymer Members and Structures) since, after being used in other high-tech industries successfully, like the Space Industry, they have shown to be a solution to well-known problems being faced by carbon-reinforced steel-concrete bridges and the sometimes harsh Florida weather, which make it costly to maintain and repair.  As we look to being more efficient as a Nation and State, our fiscal responsibility makes us look at new solutions and bring them to the infrastructure and planning of our cities.