Ignoring public sentiment in its own survey running nearly 3-to-1 in favor of repairing the existing Cortez Bridge, the Florida Department of Transportation is going to build a new high span in its place.
The DOT decided to build a fixed, 65-foot-clearance bridge, said L.K. Nandam, District 1 secretary for the DOT, despite vocal public opposition.
“We’ve got to replace the bridge,” Nandam said.
Anna Maria Mayor Dan Murphy was incredulous in his remarks after the April 23 announcement at the Sarasota/Manatee Metropolitan Planning Organization meeting attended by about 60 people. Murphy is an Island Transportation Planning Organization member with MPO voting privileges.
“Only 28 percent of the people want it and you’re going forward with it anyway?” Murphy asked. “It’s totally unpopular. I don’t think anybody would be elected with 28 percent of the vote.”
The bridge, put into service in 1957, links Bradenton Beach with the mainland at Cortez. DOT inspections between 2008 and 2012 found it structurally obsolete but repairable.
Murphy also questioned the DOT ignoring the results of its own public-input process.
“Does that not carry any weight at all?” he asked.
Even more importantly, Murphy said, the new $72 million span would literally divide the fishing village of Cortez with a relatively high roadway running through the village.
“On the other side in Bradenton Beach, it will create a divide there as well,” he said.
Nandam refuted Murphy’s assertion a new bridge would divide communities while admitting a majority of DOT survey respondents wanted the bridge repaired.
“We beg to differ,” he said. “The reason being is, if you look at the bridge touchpoints off the 35-foot (high bridge) versus the 65-foot (vertical clearance), it’s a very, very small incremental difference.”
A new bridge would restrict one street in Cortez, which would likely be connected to Cortez Road, he said.
“So there is no division of the communities,” Nandam said.
DOT project manager Marlon Bizerra called the project “challenging” as he detailed the decision.
Cost and overall impact overrode public survey results, he said. Repairing the existing bridge would cost more than $100 million, which is far more than building a new one, Bizerra said.
“I know it’s a very difficult decision,” he said. “There is a lot of opposition.”
Bizerra said the Cortez Bridge project development and environment study weighed social, economic, natural and physical environmental impacts associated with the bridge.
The larger bridge has many advantages over the existing low-level drawbridge, Bizerra said.
Major repairs already made in 1996, 2010 and 2015 would likely cost more and disrupt traffic more as the existing bridge continues to age and deteriorate.
The new bridge would be constructed using modern materials capable of lasting beyond the 75-year design life requirement for new DOT bridges, Bizerra said.
A fixed bridge saves about $23.9 million compared to a new mid-level drawbridge and another $11.2 million in operating and maintenance costs over the 75-year life span compared with the drawbridge, according to a DOT release.
A fixed bridge will eliminate congestion and delays from bridge openings, which will be reduced 98.9 percent.
The new bridge also will include two 10-foot sidewalks separated from the roadway by a traffic barrier.
The fixed bridge leaves an area along the waterfront, under the Cortez Village approach, which could provide landscaping, benches, bicycle or kayak rentals, a play area and dog park, according to the DOT.
It also could connect the north and south sides of Cortez with a roadway and walkways under the new bridge where pedestrians won’t compete with Cortez Road traffic, according to the release.
Nandam said the DOT will reach out to residents in Cortez for participation in an aesthetics committee similar to the one convened for the Anna Maria Island Bridge replacement project on State Road 64/Manatee Avenue.
Design is scheduled to begin this year and the right of way phase is funded beginning in 2020.
Construction is not yet funded.
It may be some consolation the new bridge in Cortez is far from becoming a reality even if it receives final approval from DOT Office of Environmental Management in Tallahassee, Nandam said.
A new bridge project life cycle is about 15 to 20 years, he said.
The ITPO was formed to advise the MPO and DOT on island traffic issues. The MPO, created in the 1950s to study transportation issues, identifies local priorities to generate state funding earmarks for road projects.
Best thing to happen for over 100 years. But of course “I got mine and I don’t need any modern improvements”.
I’d be surprised if anyone was actually surprised by this. Did you actually think that a state government headed by Rick Snot and the Republicants were going to do anything else? Come ON!!!
And a 65-foot bridge ISN’T going to make getting onto the island any simpler. I sit at anchor just south of the pier and watch traffic backed up to the east for long stretches of time without the bridge being raised. Why? Because of the light at the intersection of Cortez Road and Gulf Drive. A bridge ISN’T going to east that traffic jam.
I would like to suggest the Sarasota/Bradenton Metropolitan Planning Organization have their own studies done to:
1. Confirm or Dispute the DOT estimates of both costs and effects of the various options of bridges and repair and the effects on Cortez and Bradenton Beach
2. Identify how much the DOT plans to charge to do the design and construction of the project. I recall a project where
the DOT grant to fund a local project was consumed primarily by the DOT “managing the process” compared to the actual project cost.
3.The time is long past to once and for all hold their feet to the fire on the question many of us ask over and over with no response. The question
is this: If the new bridge brings more traffic even faster to the island and there is no place for traffic to go or park or turn around what would we achieve??
Probably a giant pile of cars in gridlock since we have close to that now. We really need to have a study done by an independent traffic engineer because even the DOT
won’t answer my question because they already know the answer.
4.I hate paying good money to study obvious things but we are placed in that position in order to refute the DOT’s questionable claims. And once we know
the real facts, we need to start talking to our attorneys, lobbiest, and elected officials about stopping the DOT from doing whatever the hell they want
without any regard for those of us who live here and pay the taxes which, by the way, pay their wages and provides the money they spend on bridges we don’t need.
We need a leader to help us put an end to the longstanding tyranny of the DOT. If the MPO exists for a particular reason, this is surely it.
Janet Aubry
Holmes Beach
This is a Travesty! Bureaucrats over people (FDOT ignoring the opinions of residents), efficiency over community ($11.2 m operational costs vs destruction of waterfront businesses), justifications over logic. (This will not solve traffic congestion, traffic wiil back-up at 2 lane Gulf drive just as it does now). ( It will provide space for kayak rentals and dog parks)…Oh by the way you tell us what color you want us to paint it!
Once again unelected bureaucrats decide something that has no support. The only way to squash his is to fire them. Unfortunately it seems the politicans that have that responsibility, are in the pockets of commercial interests. DOT decision shoes they are not interested in either the environment or the people that actually live here. Bigger bridge, more traffic.. the future of the island is concrete . Home rule is a figment if your imagination.
Government by for and of the people
Government by for and of the people.
Bah!