ST. CROIX — Safety concerns are mounting over a temporary metal bridge along Spring Gut Road near St. Croix Seventh-day Adventist School, where visible rust holes and structural wear have prompted changes to student transportation and plans for repairs by the Virgin Islands Department of Public Works.
Abramson Enterprises Inc., the bus company that transports students to the school, has stopped sending its bus across the bridge, citing safety risks tied to its deteriorating condition.
Angela Erysthe, Abramson’s school bus manager, said a school bus weighs over 18,000 pounds so the company decided last week that it will not allow the bus driver to cross the bridge.
“The busses cannot travel on that corroded bridge,” she said. “And we made that decision because we recognize it to be a safety issue.”
Until the bridge is repaired, Erysthe said the single bus that transports the students will continue dropping them off and picking them up at the entrance of the bridge.
“We notified the school of the situation,” she said. “They meet the kids on the other side of the bridge.”
Jacinta Berthier, the school’s principal, stood by as students exited the bus Tuesday morning and walked across the bridge to campus.
Berthier said she supports the bus company’s decision to prioritize student safety until repairs are made, adding that the Department of Public Works has notified her of plans to address the bridge, though she is unsure when work will begin.
“It is of great importance to us because of safety,” she said.
Residents living near the bridge say the structure has been deteriorating for years, with corrosion eating through the metal and creating visible holes. They also spoke about a persistent and disruptive clanking noise each time a vehicle passes over the bridge.
“This is what I hear every night,” Gary Nicholas, a resident of the nearby Flamboyant Welcome neighborhood, said. “Sometimes you’re sleeping — 2 or 3 o’clock in the morning — and a car passing; that’s what you hear every day. You can’t sleep. Everybody’s complaining around here about that.”
Nicholas said the bridge has had issues for at least two to three years and believes temporary fixes have not addressed the underlying problem of the clinking metal plates.
“They came one time and they brought a welder,” he said. “They packed it up so it could stop the noise a little, but a lot of cars pass over there. Fix it properly.”
John Farchette III, a retired employee with the Virgin Islands Department of Planning and Natural Resources who lives about a mile from the bridge on Spring Gut Road, said he can hear the metal clanking every time a vehicle crosses it. He said the noise is caused by broken welds on delaminated metal plates connected to the bridge.
“It makes that loud sound every time a car goes by, and these poor folks here who live adjacent to this bridge have to listen to a very loud slamming, twice for each axle,” he said.
Farchette pointed out Spring Gut Road is a federal road also known as Route 85, so Federal Highway Administration funds should be available to fix the bridge. He said surveys were completed about a year ago, but construction never followed.
“I know it’s not easy doing public service,” he said. “I was a public servant, and I understand. But these are exigent times. This bridge must be repaired — at the minimum, if not replaced.”
Public Works Commissioner Derek Gabriel acknowledged the bridge is in “deteriorated shape” but said inspections show no immediate risk of collapse.
“I don't think that we are in any immediate threat of having the bridge give way and any cars falling through,” he said, asking motorists and especially heavy equipment operators to exercise extreme caution.
Gabriel said the bridge is a temporary structure installed years ago over a major gut that carries stormwater toward Gallows Bay.
Gabriel said DPW planned to hold off on making any more repairs to the bridge to instead permanently replace it as part of a larger road construction project on Spring Gut Road, a dirt road that extends to the south shore. He said, however, DPW is not waiting any longer to fix the bridge.
“Given where we are and even prior to a lot of the public outcry that we’ve seen recently, we made the decision probably a month ago to go ahead and move forward with the temporary project,” he said, noting work will begin on the bridge within two to three weeks.
In a viral video of the deteriorating bridge posted to Facebook six days ago on the “St. Croix – Check In” page, the community questioned why DPW was not addressing the issue.
Gabriel said the bridge was included in the scope of the larger Spring Gut Road project, funded through Grant Anticipation Revenue Vehicles (GARVEE) bonds approved by the Virgin Islands Legislature in 2015. However, the bridge was originally slated for the project’s final phase. After becoming DPW commissioner in 2021, Gabriel said he pushed to move the bridge into the first phase after assessing its condition. The Federal Highway Administration approved the revised plan in 2023.
“We’ve been going through the phases, getting the design finalized and, of course, getting federal concurrence to where we are today,” Gabriel said. “We are at the last stage before we do put the permanent project out to bid.”
Gabriel said DPW hopes to put the project out to bid within the next 30 days. He emphasized that Phase One will include temporary bridge repairs, the start of road construction, and initial stormwater management work. Full construction of the roadway, including proper drainage, will not begin until Phase Two, which still requires additional studies and right-of-way acquisition.
Although the roadwork on the entire Spring Gut Road anticipated in Phase Two is not expected in the immediate future, residents can anticipate that DPW will begin repairing the bridge in the coming weeks before beginning permanent repairs in the first phase of the road project.
“We’re finalizing getting revised quotes and estimates,” Gabriel said. “Then, our community should see mobilization within the next two to three weeks. We are going to put out a number of public announcements because I do know that’s going to be a very tricky area for motorists and pedestrians to navigate while we’re doing those repairs.”
