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Friendship Trail Bridge Supporter Sees Hope In Obama

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By JAMIE PILARCZYK

Published: December 23, 2008

TAMPA - Frank Miller stood at the east entrance to the Friendship TrailBridge earlier today and watched as Hillsborough County workers erected a large fence to keep people out.

On Monday, Pinellas and Hillsborough county officials closed the 2.6-mile span and its catwalks following the release of an engineering study that said collapse of any portion of the bridge was possible.

Repair estimates are just too costly, from $4.1 million to repair the ends of the bridge up to $81.8 million to demolish the old bridge and build a new one.

"It drives it home," said Miller, executive director of the Friendship Trail Corp. which maintains and raises money for the former span of the Gandy Bridge that reopened as a recreational facility in December 1999. "I'm not so quick to write it off. We still have a glimmer of hope."

That glimmer comes from President-elect Barack Obama. The project has been included as one of more than 80 projects requested in Pinellas County's wish list for Obama's special economic stimulus program.

"It would create jobs, it's a regional project and it's an alternative means of transportation," Miller said. "I'm hoping it stands out a bit."

And if it doesn't catch Obama's eye?

"If this is the last we'll see of the Friendship TrailBridge, I'd do it again," Miller said.

He's hoping when the current Gandy Bridge becomes too old for traffic in about two decades, that activists will turn it into a new Friendship TrailBridge.

"It's accomplished a lot and it's been a good model."

Reporter Jamie Pilarczyk can be reached at (813) 259-7661.

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