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An unwelcome guest

Hurricane Katrina has put a damper on plans for Saturday's grand opening of the new Memorial Causeway span.

By AARON SHAROCKMAN
Published August 26, 2005

CLEARWATER - Cracked columns. Falling roadway. More than a year of delays.

Now we learn this: On the day Clearwater planned to celebrate the opening of its new Memorial Causeway bridge, a hurricane's coming.

What? Murphy's law again?

By 9 a.m. Saturday, when Mayor Frank Hibbard is introducing dignitaries from across the state, the eye of Katrina may be passing about 100 miles south.

After everything that's happened during construction of this $69.3-million half-mile-long span to Clearwater Beach, not even the grand opening can escape a big, gusting, pouring-down hitch.

"Par for the course," the mayor said Thursday.

City officials once planned a majestic ceremony with hundreds of people filling the new bridge. There would be a ribbon cutting, a ceremonial first ride, a 3K fun run.

Then they learned the bridge will already have opened by the day of the ceremony. So they scaled back: Nix the first drive. A fun run on only half the bridge.

Then entered Katrina, which hit the east coast Thursday and plodded toward the gulf.

"We still need to have some type of celebration to recognize all the partners," said city spokeswoman Joelle Castelli. "It's important for us to do something. But we also need to recognize safety."

So the party will go on in nearby Harborview Center starting at 9 a.m. Then, weather permitting, there will be a run up the helix pedestrian ramp of the new bridge and across the pedestrian trail. The bridge itself will remain open to traffic in both directions.

"It's just breaking my heart," said Assistant City Manager Garry Brumback. "It's going to turn into a much less significant event. But I hate to roll the dice that big. It's not a question of if we're going to get hit. It's when and how bad."

[Last modified August 26, 2005, 01:36:21]