WILDWOOD, Fla. — The Florida Turnpike reopened near Wildwood Friday afternoon after the top of an excavator being towed by a truck struck the underside of a bridge.
The crash on Highway 301 shut down both roads for more than an hour as crews inspected the bridge and figured out how to un-stick the excavator.
Construction crews near the bridge said the excavator was not part of their company. They said the driver was supposed to continue traveling up the Turnpike but accidentally turned off the road.
The underside of the bridge did not appear to be heavily damaged other than a few scratches. Inspectors could be seen tapping away at the concrete with small hammers as they checked the concrete’s integrity.
Meanwhile, nearby businesses lost dozens of customers who couldn’t access their properties.
Hidden Creek Golf Carts Operations Manager Everett Bracken took a golf cart down the road to check out the commotion.
“It doesn’t look as bad as I thought it was going to be with the traffic being stopped,” he observed. “I thought I was going to come down here and see a tractor trailer actually smash into the bridge.”
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