 |
||||||||
 |
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
All sides united on higher, fixed span
By AMY WIMMER © St. Petersburg Times, published April 25, 2001 It's official: The new Pinellas Bayway bridge connecting St. Petersburg to St. Pete Beach will be high and without drawbridges. The DOT will alter slightly the bridge's pitch and design, and the new bridge will no longer block access to Isla del Sol entrances at Sun and Bahia Del Mar boulevards. The compromise reached among all the factions that warred over the Bayway -- the Department of Transportation, the cities of St. Petersburg and St. Pete Beach, and the residents of Isla del Sol -- calls for a 65-foot-high fixed span that will allow boats and cars to pass unimpeded by a wait for the drawbridge. Construction is expected to begin in 2003. The project will cost more than $30-million and is already budgeted in the DOT's five-year plan. "This is the most cooperative effort to serve everyone's interests," said Ken Hartmann, the DOT secretary for the district that includes St. Petersburg. "It's situated inside a very beautiful setting -- a bridge that will make the community proud." The interests the DOT tried to serve in this project were often competing. St. Pete Beach wanted a fixed span, which the City Commission believed would aid emergency vehicles and hurricane evacuees, as well as be more convenient for its residents. St. Petersburg and Isla del Sol, which is part of the city, lobbied for a mid span drawbridge that would be less obtrusive. The bridge design was revised because of two issues the community raised: the lack of emergency access to their homes, and the aesthetics of the proposed "concrete wall" that supported the inland approach to the bridge.
"Our concern was never views," said Paul Margarone, co-chairman of the association's Bridge Committee. "Our concern was always the safety of the people . . . and the aesthetic intrusion of the wall." The new design moves the "hump" of the bridge slightly closer to St. Pete Beach, but Mayor Ward Friszolowski said he had no objections to that change. "It's not significant to where the St. Pete Beach side would need to be consulted," Hartmann said. "We're hoping that the compromise solution will solve Isla's major concerns, which are that their access doesn't get closed, and we don't have a wall down the middle of our island," St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Baker said. The mayors and other officials made their compromise announcement Tuesday afternoon on the Isla del Sol side of the Bayway bridge. As the sun blazed, cars on the Bayway honked when they spotted television trucks. Occasionally, golfers rode past on the Isla del Sol cart path, which runs under the Bayway bridge. The new bridge design, incidentally, also routes the cart path underneath the Bayway. If the path changes at all, it will be wider. DOT has been working on the new design for months, Hartmann said. St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Baker said the new Pinellas Bayway was a major issue for Isla Del Sol during his campaign for mayor, and he began looking into the issue in January and encouraging DOT to devise a new solution. During the past seven years that DOT has considered a replacement bridge, Hartmann and DOT have not always been popular in St. Pete Beach and Isla del Sol. "It has been an ongoing struggle to get all three sides to come to an agreement as to this bridge," said James Bennett, the St. Petersburg City Council member who represents District 5, which includes Isla del Sol. In 1998, the DOT chose to replace the aging Bayway with another drawbridge. A year later, after a traffic study showed congestion with a drawbridge would be worse than anticipated, Hartmann reversed his decision, opting for a 65-foot-high bridge that left Isla del Sol residents infuriated. Construction is expected to take two to three years, and the bridge will be open during construction, Hartmann said. The replacement can't come soon enough, as far as beach commuters are concerned. The Pinellas Bayway has been plagued by technical problems the past couple of years -- including an electrical malfunction that caused a fire underneath the bridge tender's station. And last year, a bridge operator opened the bridge without lowering the safety arms. The bridge spans rose 8 to 10 feet without warning, sending one driver over the gap and onto the other side, blowing out all four tires.
 © 2006 • All Rights Reserved • Tampa Bay Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111 
|
From the Times South Pinellas desks |
