A federal appeal effort has ended for a small group challenging the Florida Department of Transportation’s megabridge between Cortez and Bradenton Beach.
The group includes former Manatee County Commissioner Joe McClash and Cortez residents Linda Molto, Joe Kane and Jane Von Hahmann, also a former county commissioner.
They initiated a federal lawsuit challenging a 65-foot fixed-span bridge and proposing a mid-level 35-foot drawbridge instead.
Last August, Judge Anthony Porcelli of the U.S. District Court of Florida ruled in favor of the DOT’s plan for a new bridge, finding that “while some community members, including plaintiffs, expressed opposition to the adoption of the 65-foot-high fixed-bridge alternative, such opposition does not render FDOT’s decision arbitrary or capricious.”
Porcelli continued, “The administrative record makes clear, FDOT expended great time and effort, including inter-agency collaboration, review of years’ worth of bridge inspection reports, public hearings, and conducting an engineering analysis and environmental studies, in determining whether the 65-foot high-level fixed-bridge alternative would pose any significant impacts.”
The group maintained that while the mid-level bridge would not require retaining walls, the megabridge would feature inland walls that peak at 20 feet near some Cortez businesses and extend eastward into the community.
But, McClash said, “The appeals process terminated with a mediation that was done with FDOT, the attorneys representing DOT and the attorneys representing Jane von Hahmann and myself.”
The mediation, initiated last December, resulted in the DOT providing a scope of services that dealt primarily with a floodplain study for the new bridge.
The group consulted Feb. 3 with lawyer Matt Farmer.
“The scope of service report didn’t really provide any new additional facts, nor did they provide any new scope of services dealing with the flood plain that really would have satisfied our concerns,” McClash said in a March 20 interview with The Islander.
He said the group had hoped for more detailed information in the DOT report and the lack of clarity slowed a response from the group’s attorney.
“The outcome of the mediation was interpreted as a resolution to the appeal by the attorney representing us and, therefore, when the DOT’s scope of services was obtained, we had the opportunity to comment, and that was somehow taken as an agreement to dismiss the appeal,” McClash said.
He said they were alerted to the possibility of dismissal by their attorney March 5 and the dismissal was issued March 6.
Despite the appeal dismissal, the group still intends to keep up their fight against the megabridge.
“The project still needs a Swiftmud permit,” McClash said, referring to the Southwest Florida Water Management District.
For over thirty (30) years everyone including our former commissioners have been aware of the need and desire of the State to replace this bridge, yet all of the elected representatives of our communities have pretty much sat on their hands joined in opposition to the replacement while this bridge trembles when heavy traffic traverses it.
One of the early opponents to the replacement even admitted that perhaps a redesign of the artery should occur, that too was not explored, even though the majority of traffic has a destination at the largest public beach in our county or continuing on to Longboat Key, and the tremendous improvement of routing the bridge to that public property at Coquina Beach would solve many traffic problems and improve the evacuation solutions for both barrier islands.
So here we go still, no communication or discussion will resolve this issue because the objections really weren’t relevant years ago, the State wants to solve the problem with a stronger less maintenance prone bridge, the location could have solved many traffic problems but that discussion wasn’t allowed, nor much discussion over the past thirty years apparently.