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Some adjacent to the proposed new Belleair Beach Causeway bridge fear having watery vistas replaced by a mass of concrete.
By AARON SHAROCKMAN
© St. Petersburg Times, published July 14, 2002
BELLEAIR BLUFFS -- Harry Nigolian has lived on the water half his adult life. He's owned a handful of boats and even sailed one from Ohio to Florida.
Those were the best three months. Ask him about it.
Nigolian loves the water. He sees it every day from his fifth-floor condominium next to the 50-year-old Belleair Beach Causeway bridge. One day, though, he's going to open his curtain to white concrete, not blue water.
Progress is coming to his neighborhood.
Nigolian's not angry that a new bridge is moving 75 feet closer to his window. Or that it's going to be wider and maybe taller. He agrees with Pinellas County officials: It's time for a new bridge. He just likes one proposal for the bridge better than two other options.
"I understand that we need a new bridge there," said Nigolian, who has lived for eight years at Harbor Club condominiums, 100 Bluff Drive. "It's old and out-of-date. In an ideal world, would I want it closer to me? No, but that's price of progress."
The price for the progress is between $32-million and $44-million, depending on the design. Construction will start in 2005 and likely will take two years to finish, said Tony Horrnik, the county's senior engineer.
County commissioners approved a plan recently to build the new bridge north of the existing drawbridge that connects Belleair Bluffs with Belleair Shores. The county hasn't decided what kind of bridge it'll build. It's entertaining three options:
A low-level bascule bridge. This bridge would be similar to the one currently in place. It would have a center span that could be drawn up and down and a clearance, when closed, of 20-feet.
A mid level bascule bridge. This bridge would have a higher clearance of 45 feet, allowing more boats to pass through without stopping traffic to open the draw. The mid level bridge would still contain a draw for taller vessels.
A high fixed-span bridge. This bridge would not have a draw and would have at least 65 feetof clearance.
Horrnik said the county will develop plans for each bridge and present them with recommendations this fall. Before the county decides, Horrnik will meet with the public to discuss the options.
Preliminary estimates say that a high-level fixed bridge would be $9-million cheaper, Horrnik said.
That worries some of Harbor Club's 220 homeowners, including Nigolian. He, along with condo association president Peter Ferrara, want the county to build the mid level bridge, regardless of the cost.
The taller bridge will make life miserable for residents, Ferrara said.
"They're trying to build the Taj Mahal," Ferrara said. "It's no Taj Mahal. It's just a commuter bridge. "A tall bridge like that would be a feeder for speeders coming downhill.
"On top of that, we'd be looking at a wall of concrete every day."
The Harbor Club has three buildings, all in the vicinity of the bridge, but Building C is the one most affected by the new bridge. Its entrance is near where bridge begins.
Residents worry that a higher bridge with a steeper grade will make it difficult to see traffic coming eastbound on the causeway. Nigolian and Ferrara both live in Building C and say getting out of the building's parking lot is already an issue.
"In the wintertime, it's near impossible to get out from the lot," Ferrara said. "With a high bridge like that, it would almost be impossible. We wouldn't be able to see when the cars are coming."
Ferrara is a member of the Citizens Involvement Committee, a group created by the county to offer input as the project progresses. To his delight, he said the county is listening to the committee's suggestions.
Like Nigolian, who prefers the mid level design, Ferrara does not want a 65- to 75-foot bridge like the one being built in Clearwater. He asked county engineers just how many ships would need that extra clearance each day that a mid level drawbridge couldn't provide. Horrnik said his team is developing an answer by counting the boats that pass under the Belleair causeway each day and how tall they are.
"The county's been great," Ferrara said. "I really commend them for hearing the people."
The study, which isn't finished, will be presented to the public at a meeting in October, Horrnik said.
For a man who has run boats up and down the Intracoastal Waterway hundreds of times, Nigolian accepts that the same bridge disrupting his view will disturb a boat ramp in the bridge's new path.
"The county is doing the best they can," Nigolian said. "If you built the bridge on the other side, just as many people would be complaining. Who do you please?"
While the new bridge will salvage a dog beach on the south side of the existing causeway and lessen headaches to a nearby neighborhood, it cuts through parking for a boat ramp to the north. Horrnik said the county is trying to minimize the number of parking spots the new bridge would eliminate.
A high fixed-span bridge would cause the least amount of disruption to boat ramp parking, he said.
"We'd lose some during construction, but then we'd add most back once the bridge is finished," Horrnik said.
While county engineers still consider how tall the bridge will be, they know it will be twice as wide. The new bridge will be 65 feet across, Horrnik said.
The bridge will remain two lanes, one in each direction, but will grow with the addition of two 10-foot shoulders. The shoulders will aid motorists in case of an accident or other car trouble. The new bridge will also have wider sidewalks for pedestrians, fishermen and bikers, Horrnik said.
Ferrara said the bridge doesn't need to be that wide. As much as he's willing to accept a new bridge next door along with Nigolian and other residents, he's not ready to give the county a free pass on everything.
"I look out my window and see what's going to happen," Ferrara said. "It's going to be I-95."