Lane closures return to Longboat

The Florida Department of Transportation’s Gulf of Mexico Drive paving contractor, Ajax Paving Industries Inc., will return Thursday, June 25 to Longboat Key to repair a road deficiency on Gulf of Mexico Drive near the county line.

The road repair means that the contractor needs to perform lane closures starting tomorrow morning that will last for approximately three hours.

While there is nothing wrong with the freshly paved Manatee County portion of the road, the company found a slight deficiency in about a 100-foot section of the road near the county line while it was performing a final walkthrough Tuesday, June 23.

A substance that is put down to make the new asphalt stick to the surface underneath has bled out onto the top of the road in that area.

“Sometimes, they just put too much of the material down,” said project public information officer Darren Alfonso. “It’s a minor repair that won’t take very long to correct.”

The substance is difficult to see from the average eye and is not harmful to vehicle tires.

Only a 400-foot section of Gulf of Mexico Drive will be closed off to make the repair, as opposed to an 8,000-foot section of roadway that was closed when the contractor initially began the project.

The work should be complete by noon.

For more information, contact Alfonso at 813-767-9532.

Contact Kurt Schultheis at [email protected].