Longboat Pass Bridge lawsuit moves forward

A lawsuit filed against town of Longboat Key will drag on this year, after the parties involved came to an impasse during a meeting Friday.

“I can’t reveal anything that occurred at mediation because there are strict rules of confidentiality,” said Town Attorney Maggie Mooney-Portale. 

Infrastructure Corporation of America filed suit last year against the town, two contractors and a subcontractor alleging a drilling project caused the ground to shift and create a gap between a bridge span and the rest of the the Longboat Pass Bridge, causing more than $750,000 in damages.

The two-hour session, though ultimately unsuccessful, is the latest in a saga involving damage to the bridge connecting Longboat and Anna Maria Island that allegedly occurred on October 24, 2014.

At that time, the town was undertaking the roughly 2,500-foot replacement of an aging water main under Longboat Pass using contractor Spectrum Underground, which hired subcontractor TB Landmark. Consultant CDM Smith provided the town with the engineering work for the roughly $1.6 million project.

Infrastructure Corporation of America has sued all three firms.

The state had hired the Brentwood, Tenn.-based firm to oversee maintenance of the bridge, which means the company “essentially steps into the shoes of the FDOT and is authorized to pursue claims for reimbursement of expenses incurred to repair Longboat Pass Bridge,” according to a claim in an Oct. 13 response from ICA to motions to dismiss the case.

The town had argued that because ICA hadn’t claimed it suffered any property damage or personal injury, and because the original complaint failed to cite any specific conduct by Longboat that resulted in damage, the case should be dismissed. 

The same day of the impasse, ICA filed a motion demanding a jury trial. Mooney-Portale declined to give an estimate for how long the litigation will continue.

“It is a complex matter that has been brought against the town and contractors and there will be extensive discovery, depositions and exchanges of documents and the like,” she said.