The Florida Department of Transportation issued an apology for the severe traffic backups on Anna Maria Island and the Palma Sola Causeway March 7. The congestion was caused by two simultaneous DOT projects in the area.
Following complaints about the traffic from the Anna Maria Island Chamber of Commerce and Manatee County administrator Ed Hunzeker’s office, DOT spokesperson Lauren Hatchell said all DOT operations and inspections on the Anna Maria Island Bridge and Palma Sola Causeway will take place during night-time hours.
The mega-backup began around 10 a.m. March 7, when a DOT work crew began a milling and resurfacing project on the causeway near the Harbour Isle entrance, allowing one-way traffic with a flagging operation.
Hatchell said the work notice was not included in the weekly DOT Road Watch report given to Island media several weeks ago because the work “was to have already been completed” prior to March 7.
The scheduled repairs were noted in the DOT Road Watch distributed March 4.
Because the flagging operation reduced causeway traffic to one lane, motorists heading west onto Anna Maria Island eventually backed up in Bradenton on Manatee Avenue past the 59th Street intersection and a normally 10-minute drive took more than an hour.
For motorists on Anna Maria Island, the situation was gridlock, said Holmes Beach Police Chief Jay Romine.
“It was pretty poor timing by the DOT. We had several things going, and they all came together,” he said.
Officers did traffic control “as much as possible,” Romine said, “but we eventually reached the point where we had nowhere to put the cars.”
March 7 was the first day of spring break for Manatee County’s public schools and good weather had many folks headed to the Island.
“The spring breakers certainly were coming that day,” Romine said.
In addition to spring breakers increasing the already high volume of traffic to the Island in March and the flagging operation on the causeway, DOT officials were conducting a biennial inspection of the AMI Bridge the same day and occasionally shut down traffic on the structure in both directions.
That was the DOT’s fault, Hatchell said.
The inspection “absolutely should not have occurred, and once it was brought to the DOT’s attention, we immediately requested the bridge inspection staff to cease their work and remove themselves from the bridge,” she said.
Hatchell said the inspection was rescheduled for after spring break and will take place at night, as will any road repairs the next few months.
“Unless an emergency arises, there will not be any type of work or inspections on the bridge during the day,” she said.
“We sincerely apologize for the delays and impacts this work caused to residents, business owners and visitors to the Island. I can assure you, this will not happen again,” Hatchell concluded.
Some Island business owners, however, questioned why the DOT was scheduling any work on the causeway during the height of the winter-spring season.
“What were they thinking of?” said Charlotte Mansur, owner of Mr. Bones BBQ on Gulf Drive in Holmes Beach.
“It took me more than an hour to get across the causeway that day. Don’t they know there’s a tourist season here on the Island?”
Still, Mansur was pleased that the DOT immediately recognized the situation, pulled the workers and issued an apology.
Mansur credited prompt reaction of Deb Wing of the Anna Maria Island Chamber of Commerce and Kaycee Ellis of Hunzeker’s office with contacting the DOT after she complained about the delay.
Romine said in addition to the DOT work, a truck that caught fire at the Manatee Public Beach that day also caused traffic to backup, as motorists viewing the incident slowed to watch.
“To say Monday was gridlock is an understatement,” the chief said.
By March 8, traffic in Holmes Beach was back to what Romine called “normal for the winter season and spring break.”