PANAMA CITY, Fla. (WJHG/WECP) – You don’t have to cross the 20-year-old Hathaway Bridge in the dark anymore. The 14 lights on the east bound side heading into Panama City are now working.
For a few months, the lights on the Hathaway Bridge have been missing, broken or just not working.
“Four of the 14 they did a complete change out,” said Jonathan Hayes, Panama City’s Public Works Director.
Crews were up early checking the lights, fixing and replacing the ones that needed it.
“They changed the bulb they changed the fuse, and they changed the ballast even the ones that were working they looked at them as well,” said Hayes.
City officials said they have been working closely with Florida Department of Transportation to fix the lights.
“The best path forward and they have conquered is to go ahead and replace all 54 lights on that bridge they are indeed at the very in of their life cycle or getting very close to it,” said Hayes.
For those who drive or walk across the bridge, they said the updates are good news.
“I feel that it’s a great thing for our community to have newer lights better lights in and hopefully making the road a lot safer,” said Mathew Tanner, a local resident. “There were certain sections of it that were completely dark at night and if someone was riding past you without their head lights on like that’s extremely dangerous.”
Tuesday, workers with Panama City will fix the lights in the middle section of the Hathaway bridge.
“By the end of next week all of these lights should be working with the exception of the four that are completely missing,” said Hayes.
There is no timeline for when those four lights will be replaced.
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