On a humid July morning, Tampa’s waterfront offered an odd juxtaposition: rowers cutting silently across the Hillsborough River, construction cranes rising over downtown, and the industrial choreography of barges, drills, and crews working just beyond the seawall.
A changing skyline draws the eye. New façades are taking shape at the Pendry Tampa hotel and condo tower, the One Tampa residential tower along Ashley Drive, and at the new Tampa General Hospital patient tower at the tip of Davis Islands. But some of the most consequential construction underway downtown is less visible.
As part of the West Riverwalk BUILD project, crews are installing nearly 70 drilled shafts and piles to support three new overwater structures: the Platt Street Pedestrian Bridge, the Brorein Street Pedestrian Bridge, and the Tony Jannus Park Observation Overlook. The work requires drilling each support roughly 40 feet into the riverbed, with some shafts reaching nearly 50 feet deep. Each structure will be built to support more than 130 tons…