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There's a backup on the Bayway, and it's not traffic
By AMY WIMMER, Times Staff Writer
ST. PETE BEACH -- By now, the Department of Transportation had hoped to be preparing to hire a contractor for the Pinellas Bayway. In another few months, the huge job of building a new bridge should have been under way. Instead, the bridge is at a standstill, like the traffic it stops when the spans rise so a boat can pass beneath. Work may be delayed for as much as a year. The project is stuck between a group of residents who think the towering bridge proposed by the DOT will hamper their coastal way of life, and a state agency that says the time has passed for debating how the new bridge will look. The Southwest Florida Water Management District is poised to give the DOT the permit it needs to build a fixed-span Pinellas Bayway to St. Pete Beach with clearance of 65 feet. But three St. Pete Beach residents, with some financial help from perhaps 50 more, have petitioned Swiftmud for an administrative hearing to fight the new bridge. A number of issues present obstacles for the DOT: The residents contend that the bridge design, which brings the Bayway 70 feet closer to the Vina Del Mar neighborhood on its south side, will encumber navigational channels and harm the environment. The DOT initially applied for the wrong type of permit, delaying the permitting process and forcing the project into a public comment period otherwise not required. And, in a recent twist that put the NAACP on the same side as owners of yachts too big to fit through a 65-foot-high bridge, the St. Petersburg branch of the NAACP is arguing that the new Bayway could displace minority fishermen who depend on the bridge for food as well as recreation. "We are very disturbed at reports that the public, including a significant number of minorities, will be denied access to the water and its uses," Darryl Rouson, president of the St. Petersburg branch of the NAACP, wrote to Swiftmud. Rouson pointed out a concession the DOT made the last time it reversed its decision on the bridge. The agency initially pledged to build a high bridge, then switched its recommendation to a low bridge to accommodate complaints from Isla Del Sol residents, then settled on the high bridge. To appease Isla Del Sol residents, the DOT also agreed to keep one Isla entrance originally slated to be closed, plus allow continued golf cart access on the DOT right of way. "On the other hand, we are told plans are being developed to provide access for golf carts, which cater to an upper income and nonminority public," Rouson continued in his letter. "We would like to see this inequity addressed." Kristen Carson, a DOT spokeswoman, said Friday that fishing will not be banned on the new high bridge, though the bridge's design might not be conducive to fishing. Dan Rothenberger, who lives in Vina Del Mar, is one of the three St. Pete Beach residents who is fighting the issuance of the Swiftmud permit. Without the water district permit, the DOT cannot get the U.S. Coast Guard permit it needs to construct the new Bayway. He said he believes the existing bridge is an example of how different factions of coastal life work together. "It represents a basic sharing," Rothenberger said. "It's available for cars, it's available for boaters, it's available for fishing." The new bridge, he said, places a priority on getting automobiles over the bridge -- at the expense of a handful of boaters who live north of the Bayway and own boats too large to maneuver under the new 65-foot span. Those boats would have to access the Gulf of Mexico through John's Pass, but some channels between St. Pete Beach and Madeira Beach are too shallow for those boats to navigate, Rothenberger said. Don Skelton, director of planning and development for DOT's District 7, said the navigational needs of boaters were taken into consideration when the high bridge design was selected. "Knowing that there is an alternate path to get out factors into the decision," Skelton said. "The channel may not be deep enough possibly because it's not maintained to the proper depth. We're obligated to give it consideration just like every piece of public input that comes into this." Rothenberger's group is preparing to go to mediation with the DOT over the issues. But the state agency has already said that the group, which hopes to persuade the state to build a low drawbridge instead of a high, fixed-span bridge, has no hope of changing the bridge design. "We went through the significant study phase of this bridge, and we arrived at the decision of the high versus low issue and determined that the high-level bridge was the appropriate solution," Skelton said. "We have made the point to Mr. Rothenberger and the others on the side of challenging the permit that that is not an issue we are going to consider." Beyond the 65 feet of clearance underneath, the new bridge, railings and all, would measure 76 feet, not including its light poles. That's about twice the building height limit in Pass-a-Grille. Eighteen months ago, when the DOT last changed its mind and went with a high, fixed-span option for the Bayway, the construction estimate was $30-million, and work was expected to begin this year. Now the estimate is $35-million and the DOT does not expect to hire contractors until December if work continues to go as planned. Construction would begin about four months after contractors are hired, Skelton said. "The DOT has taken a 'This is our bridge; get out of our way' stance," Rothenberger said. "There's a lot of people who are just tired. I'm not tired."
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