DOT Cortez Bridge study ends, opposition stirs

Five years and $1.5 million later, the outcome of the Cortez Bridge study is taking shape — prompting a new wave of opposition.

The Florida Department of Transportation District 1 is planning a late August or September public hearing “that wraps it up,” said Zac Burch, DOT government affairs and communication manager.

At the hearing, officials will present the district’s choice between a narrowed list of two designs — a 35-foot bascule and 65-foot vertical clearance fixed-span — to replace the Cortez Bridge on State Road 684, which connects Cortez and Bradenton Beach. Public comment will be taken and the study results will go to Tallahassee for consideration.

A no-build recommendation also will be included, according to Burch.

Under the no-build alternative, the DOT anticipates the Cortez Bridge would last 10 years without renovation. Under the build options, a 75-year life span is predicted.

If the state approves a new bridge, a $7.25 million design phase will start in 2017, followed by right-of-way acquisition and construction phases, Burch said, adding the DOT has selected H.W. Lochner as its design consultant.

“If a no-build alternative is selected, we will cancel the contract and reassign those funds to another project,” he said.

The existing bridge has a 17.6-foot clearance and stretches almost a mile between 123rd Street West on the mainland and Gulf Drive in Bradenton Beach.

The final public hearing comes after studying engineering, environmental and societal aspects, including public meetings and surveys to arrive at the “best solution,” Burch said.

If the fixed span is the DOT’s bridge-of-choice, it’ll be no surprise to Nancy Deal, the secretary/treasurer of Save Anna Maria Inc.

SAM is a nonprofit that formed in the 1990s to fight the mega-bridge proposals to replace the mainland links to Anna Maria Island.

That fight began with then-Bradenton Beach Mayor Katie Pierola railing against a 65-foot bridge and the swath of properties it would destroy on both ends of the Cortez Bridge. The DOT backed off and agreed to rehab the bridge, but turned its focus to a replacement bridge on Manatee Avenue.

Then came SAM and the fight against the DOT.

“They don’t like those bascule bridges. They don’t like them, SAM I am,” said Deal, adding that the DOT fails to consider hurricane evacuation issues in the event the megabridges close due to high winds.

Members of SAM and Florida Institute for Saltwater Heritage Inc., including Linda Molto, Plum Taylor and Mary Fulford Green, are planning a public awareness campaign.

At a FISH meeting June 12, Molto told the board about SAM’s interest in joining forces to prepare a handout aimed at stopping a high bridge replacement for Cortez Road.

FISH is a nonprofit representing a 180-person membership with a mission to preserve the commercial fishing industry and traditional maritime history in Cortez.

FISH vice president Jane von Hahmann recommended “getting a few people together from our group and theirs” and “to decide what needs to get printed.”

Molto agreed, volunteering to get the handout “to every house in the village.”

“Most people just don’t realize what the bridge could do to Cortez,” Taylor said.

After the FISH meeting, Green, who helped propel Cortez in 1995 to the list of National Register of Historic Places, spoke against a new DOT bridge.

The district — bounded by Cortez Road to the north, Sarasota Bay on the south, 119th Street to the east to the South 124th Street Court to the west — should prevent negative impacts to those areas, according to Green.

“The people who live to the north have to get concerned,” Green said.

“I’m for the “no-bridge option now,” she added.

The proposed 65-foot-clearance Cortez Bridge would close four streets in Cortez and “we’d lose the Seafood Shack,” Green said.