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Anna Maria Island Bridge Set To Reopen Next Week

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Sarasota-Herald Tribune

Published: November 4, 2008

MANATEE COUNTY - If all goes as planned -- and so far it has -- the closed Anna Maria Bridge should reopen to traffic on Nov. 13.

"Hopefully, the weather will cooperate," Audrey Clarke, public information officer for the renovation project, said Monday.

Clarke said recently poured concrete is still curing and winds have caused delays for painters who are working on the Manatee Avenue/State Road 64 bridge over the Intra-coastal Waterway.

Even so, Quinn Construction and its subcontractors on the $9.14 million project told the Florida Department of Transportation that they expect to open the drawbridge to traffic at midnight on Nov. 13. Commuters that morning will no longer have to use the Cortez Road bridge for detours.

The DOT closed the 50-year-old Anna Maria Bridge, which connects Holmes Beach and Perico Island, on Sept. 29 to make repairs. The work is expected to extend the life of the drawbridge by another 10 to 15 years.

As a result of the detour, the County Commission today will discuss whether to ask the DOT to make permanent a change to a mainland intersection that was altered to accommodate detour traffic.

The northbound outside lane of 75th Street West at Manatee Avenue is now restricted to traffic making right turns onto Manatee Avenue.

The commissioners are undecided whether to keep the exclusive right turn lane or again let the lane be used for turning right and through traffic.

Last week, the county's traffic engineers recommended restoring the lane for northbound traffic as well, as it was before. When the bridge reopens, they predict the number of turning vehicles in the lane will decline. They have also noted back-ups in the remaining lane for traffic wanting to cross Manatee Avenue and continue north on 75th Street.

Also today, the County Commission will consider asking the Legislature to budget from $60 million to $90 million toward the eventual replacement of the Anna Maria Bridge with a higher, fixed-span bridge.

Plans for a new bridge were put on hold indefinitely in 1996. A grass-roots group opposed to a high bridge, Save Anna Maria, prevailed in an administrative hearing when a judge recommended denial of the DOT's dredge-and-fill permit.

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