"Either something is wrong with the material, or something is wrong with how it [the installation] was approved by the DOT, and we've got to get a solution," said Lake Ray, chairman of the council's Transportation, Environment and Energy Committee.

The state has been "intensively" investigating whether the new grating has caused an increase in accidents on the Mathews Bridge, said Department of Transportation spokesman Mike Goldman. He said engineers have not yet reached any conclusions.

"There are a lot of issues on the table right now," Goldman said, adding that engineers are examining how the grating was manufactured and installed.

The state put in the new grating over seven months, installing the final panel in January. The $3 million project replaced the original grating, which had suffered wear and tear since the bridge opened in 1953. The Mathews is one of Jacksonville's busiest spans, with about 75,000 vehicles crossing it daily between Arlington and downtown.

The state began its review after hearing complaints from drivers and receiving a report from the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office. The Sheriff's Office found that from September through Dec. 18, 20 drivers lost control of their vehicles while crossing the grating.

In January, the state banned lane-changing on the crest of the Mathews Bridge. Traffic engineers are conducting a speed study to determine whether lowering the 45 mph limit will improve safety, and the state will install large overhead signs warning drivers that the grating is slippery when wet.

City Council member Elaine Brown, who initiated last night's resolution, said the "warnings are needed, but I don't feel that's sufficient."

She said the grating causes the wheels of a car to shift, which makes it harder to steer.

"When your tire is grabbed by the grating, I see that as something that will cause a series of accidents throughout the year," Brown said.

Mayor John Delaney also is concerned that the grating "may be a safety hazard," said Susan Wiles, the mayor's chief of staff.

"He drives it daily," she said. "That's his way in, so he, too, has experienced 'unsteady footing,' if you will."

The number of accidents on the Mathews Bridge declined in 1999, when there were a total of 198 compared to 226 accidents in 1998. However, the state is focusing on the segment at the top of the bridge where the metal grating is located. Transportation engineers want to know whether accidents have become more frequent on the new area compared to the old, and what factors contributed to the crashes, Goldman said.

For example, the Sheriff's Office has found that a 29-year-old Jacksonville man was intoxicated when he lost control of his truck while he drove over the grating in rainy weather on Jan. 24. The driver had a blood-alcohol level of 0.21, which is more than twice the legal limit of 0.08, said Detective Michael Fouty.

The crash report filed at the time of the accident listed the wet metal grating as a contributing cause to the crash. Fouty said that while any metal grating will be slippier than pavement in the rain, the crash was caused by a "combination of factors" that also included driving while intoxicated and driver judgment. He said those contributed to the accident "as much or more than the condition of the grating."

The grating contains 240 individual panels, and Ray said he thinks the problems stem from the panels not lining up correctly. Each panel has bars that run crosswise, lengthwise, and diagonally.

Ray said tire grooves, particularly new tires that haven't been worn down, wedge into the lengthwise bars. When those lengthwise bars don't line up exactly from one panel to the next, the tires shift into a different groove alignment, which translates to a sensation for drivers that the bridge is pulling the car, said Ray, who is a civil engineer.

Ray said he also thinks the individual panels were not properly designed for a bridge that arches to the degree that the Mathews does. As a result, there are spaces between the grating panels that create a disruption between tires and the bridge surface, Ray said.

He said he would like to see the state consider whether "lightweight concrete" could be used instead of steel grating. State transportation engineers have said that concrete or asphalt was not an option because that is much heavier than the grating, and placing that much weight at the center of the span would require an extensive overhaul of the bridge.

Huey Hawkins, the secretary for the Northeast Florida district of the Department of Transportation, has agreed to meet with the council's transportation committee. The committee meets Feb. 16, and Hawkins was trying to arrange his schedule to make that session.