Parrish link almost complete

The “inconvenience” is about to end.

The Fort Hamer Bridge project, which includes a 2,300-foot bridge across the river to connect Fort Hamer and Upper Manatee River roads, is 80% complete with a tentative bridge opening slated for Aug. 26.

Contractor Johnson Bros. Corp. completed the piers and remaining bottom half of the bridge last week, but still have to finish pouring the deck of the bridge itself, a process that will take until the end of July, project manager Tom Charles said.

“I think the job has gone pretty well,” Charles said. “I know it’s been somewhat of an inconvenience to the public, but they’ve handled it.”

Crews also must complete safety features, including railing for the sidewalk and adding grooves to the concrete deck to create more friction and prevent skidding.

Light installation at the southern end of the bridge, as well as laying the final layers of asphalt on both Upper Manatee River and Fort Hamer roads, will be some of the last steps to complete the $32.69 million project.

Charles said construction of the bridge has been “fairly typical,” although it has had some unique challenges because the bridge crosses two sections of the Manatee River with a marshy island between them. That fact required the contractor to pour foundations for the bridge in four environments — on land, in shallow water, in marshland and in the deepest parts of the river channel at about 10 to 12 feet deep.

“Say this was an open river, we would have brought barges in and worked on several areas at a time,” Charles said. “But we couldn’t spread out on the job and work. That’s the tough thing of where it’s at on the river.”

Recent rains have slowed work, but the job is still on track for its August opening date, Charles said.

Manatee County District 5 Commissioner Vanessa Baugh said the opening of the roadway will provide a much-needed north-south connection on the eastern side of Manatee County. Residents in the Parrish area seem to be most excited about the project, she said.

“They feel like it’s going to cut the time going south,” Baugh said, noting she believes most traffic will turn on State Road 64 to go to Interstate 75, as traffic studies indicate, and will not travel southward onto Lakewood Ranch Boulevard. “I don’t think on a daily basis it will have much impact on District 5, and I just don’t think it will have that big of an impact on Lakewood Ranch. I think the biggest impact it will have on Lakewood Ranch is at a time of evacuation.”

Manatee County’s Director of Public Works Ron Schulhofer agreed.

“It will provide much better accessibility for our neighbors north of the river to medical facilities — Lakewood Ranch hospital — and is another means of evacuation. Commute times for many neighbors working south of the river will be lessened.”