Northpinellas: Tallest bridge design wins a round

A sleek seven-story bridge, tall enough to let cars go over while boats go under, is the safest, cheapest way to replace the aging Belleair Causeway Bridge, supporters say.

Opponents say such a bridge would be one more insult in a rapidly blossoming "concrete jungle" paving over Pinellas County. A lower drawbridge would be more attractive, they say.

On Tuesday, the modernists won a round when the county's design consultant and various staff members recommended that county commissioners choose the higher, fixed-span bridge.

Commissioners have yet to decide the issue. But two commissioners, Calvin Harris and Barbara Sheen Todd, said Tuesday they prefer the high bridge, and Commissioner Ken Welch said he is leaning that way. Three others are undecided.

The commission is choosing from among three options: a 26-foot-high drawbridge, about the same as the current bridge; a 45-foot-high drawbridge; and a fixed-span bridge 65 to 74 feet high.

Every significant factor points to the highest bridge, backers said. It's cheaper to build and cheaper to operate. Ambulances and emergency vehicles would never risk stopping at a drawbridge. And it would be easier to evacuate the beaches in emergencies.

"There is only one logical selection," said George Mariani, mayor of Belleair.

Mayors of Belleair Beach, Belleair Shore and Indian Rocks Beach also spoke in favor of the fixed span, as did leaders of the Pinellas Suncoast Fire and Rescue District and the Sand Key Civic Association. Gary Vickers, the county emergency management director, and Chuck Kearns, rescue and fire administration director, both argued for the tall bridge.

From April to December of last year, Kearns told commissioners, 89 county ambulances were delayed while responding to emergency calls because of open drawbridges. When he worked as a paramedic, Kearns said, he was once stopped at a drawbridge in Madeira Beach while rushing a heart attack victim to the hospital.

The man died. The wait was only a few minutes, and Kearns couldn't say whether the man might otherwise have lived. Still, "it seemed to take forever," Kearns said.

But opponents said the safety risks are overstated, especially for a 45-foot-tall drawbridge, which would have to be raised less often. Lawyer Tim Johnson, who represents homeowners in the Harbor Bluffs neighborhood south of the bridge, said county staff members haven't documented a clear safety hazard. Nor have they studied the changes in noise and light, he said.

But most of all, opponents say, the tall bridge would be ugly.

"It's going to block the view with Clearwater's edition of the Berlin Wall," Johnson said. "It's going to dominate the skyline."

Harbor Bluffs resident Elizabeth Daniels said her neighborhood is one of the few in Pinellas to have resisted high-rise development like the "concrete jungle" of condos on the beaches.

Building a high bridge is "just saying there is no place left," Daniels said. "Let's just bring in the concrete."

Others weren't so sure. Harbor Club resident Bill Balmer, who lives just north of the bridge, said the fixed span could be more elegant than the chunky boxes on each end of a drawbridge.

"The new view is not necessarily bad," he said. "Just different."

Also Tuesday, consultants gave commissioners new cost estimates for the bridge. Those still show the fixed span to be cheapest, but by a smaller margin. But the new figures were for only part of the bridge, and two consulting firms gave different figures.

So commissioners said the new numbers were hard to compare to the earlier, total figures, which put building the mid-level drawbridge at $43-million to $46.5-million and the fixed span at $32.6-million to $37.5-million. They asked staff members to bring in more cost information.

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