She’ll be getting quite the face-lift.
As of June 29, the Florida Department of Transportation was in the design phase of a project to repair the Anna Maria Island Bridge in 2023, according to an email to The Islander from DOT communications specialist Adam Rose.
The work, which the department estimates will begin in May or June of 2023, will include coating steel members, restoring section loss on corroded steel members, repairing and testing the Hopkins frame — a drive system for raising and lowering the bridge’s bascule segments — performing crack injections, adjusting the raising/lowering mechanism, cleaning corrosion and painting.
According to the Sarasota/Manatee Metropolitan Planning Organization’s 2023-27 transportation improvement program — which was adopted May 23 and mirrors the DOT’s five-year work plan — the project will cost $2,453,559.
A finalized version of the department’s five-year program, approved by Gov. Ron DeSantis July 1, likely will be made public in late July or early August and will include the initiative’s final price tag.
If necessary, the project’s contractor is permitted to close a single lane of Manatee Avenue on or near the bridge outside of 6 a.m.-7 p.m. and both lanes outside of 6 a.m.-9 p.m. to complete the work, Rose said.
The Anna Maria Island Bridge — which spans Anna Maria Sound and connects Perico Island and Bradenton on the mainland to Holmes Beach on the island — was built in 1957.
In February 2021, DOT District 1 Secretary LK Nandam said the department intends to replace the 20-foot-clearance drawbridge with a 65-foot-clearance fixed-span bridge within the next 10 years.
The DOT also seeks to replace the 1957-built 17-foot-clearance Cortez drawbridge — which spans the Intracoastal Waterway and connects Cortez on the mainland to Bradenton Beach on the island — with a 65-foot bridge in 2026-27.
A study into building alternatives for the replacement of the Longboat Pass Bridge — also completed in 1957 — began in early 2020.