Bats stall bridge project

Reported by: Bryan Garner
Photographer: Jenny Newell

Port St. Lucie will have to put the brakes on a major bridge project because of a colony of bats.

Twenty thousand bats live in the crevices beneath an overpass of I-95 above Savage Blvd.

The city plans to resurface the bridge and turn it into an interchange with its new Crosstown Parkway.

But those bats are protected species.  And between April and August, many of them will be having babies.

"According to the engineers it will not delay the project," says John Greenwood, owner of "Friends of Bats," a bat consulting firm.

The city promises no project delays or cost overruns, but drivers will face lane closures while construction remains on hold during the bats' "maternity period."