- May 3, 2024
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Country Meadows resident Tim Law was talking about his daily task of negotiating the intersection of State Road 64 and Upper Manatee River Road (which to the south of S.R. 64 turns into Lakewood Ranch Boulevard).
"That's where the real bottleneck is now," Law said while attending a Manatee County public information meeting at Peace Presbyterian Church for Upper Manatee River Road improvements.
The public meeting March 21 offered design boards with information about every aspect of the project. The $22.6 million project will widen the roadway from two lanes to four lanes (two in each direction) over a 2.2-mile stretch from the Fort Hamer Bridge south to S.R. 64.
Like many of those in attendance at the public meeting, Law was considering what the roadway will be like during a construction period that is expected to stretch from early 2024 to early 2026. And then what kind of bottlenecks will occur if construction of the new Fort Hamer span over the Manatee River isn't complete until two or three years after the four-lane roadway opens.
The bridge currently is two lanes.
Law summed up his thoughts by saying, "It is going to be less worse."
Others who attended the meeting said they weren't looking forward to years of construction, but that eventually the trip through that corridor should be smoother with the addition of more lanes and another bridge span. However, they also noted that such improvements will draw even more motorists to go with the fact Parrish is growing in the manner of Lakewood Ranch 20 years ago.
Tom Diaz, who lives on Upper Manatee River Road where it curves to the north just before reaching the Fort Hamer Bridge, said "everything was quiet" before the Fort Hamer Bridge opened in 2017.
"But you have to improve now," Diaz said. "There is no turning back."
Danny and Tina Friddle live on Third Avenue East off Upper Manatee River Road and they said traffic is a mess all day long. They said it is nearly impossible to make a safe left hand turn on to Upper Manatee River Road and it appears they will have to turn north and make a U-turn in order to go south.
Frank Bullard, who has lived his entire life just off Upper Manatee River Road, said it can take 10 minutes or more to make a left on to Upper Manatee River Road southbound when he is driving a truck and pulling a trailer. He expects it to be even more difficult after the widening is completed.
"You are going to have four lanes of traffic instead of two lanes," he said. "It's dangerous."
However, Manatee County officials understand the bigger picture and say that improvements are vital to allow traffic to flow through the growing region. They say it will be important to finish the bridge as soon as possible after the road widening project is complete.
Commissioner Vanessa Baugh said first it will be imperative to secure federal funding for the new bridge span to save the taxpayers' money.
"The Fort Hamer Bridge is our No. 1 priority for the year with the federal government," Baugh said March 28. "Traffic there is a massive problem."
Last May commissioners went to Washington to continue their pursuit of federal funds for the corridor. They sought more than $39 million in project grant funds. Those grant applications come due in April.
Baugh said U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan could be a huge factor in helping to secure needed federal funds for the bridge span.
At this point, though, Manatee County has yet to present plans for the bridge to the public.
"It is a project of record," said Ogden Clark, a strategic planning manager for Manatee County. "One million dollars has been put toward design and engineering."
However, Clark said the process is in the preliminary stages with important topics such as what type of materials to be used remain to be determined.
"This involves how long the span will be, the cost of materials, permitting, traffic counts and studies," Clark said.
Some of those items have been studied since the first span opened in 2017.
"We were aware when the bridge opened that it already was at capacity," Clark said. "It was a given that we would need to build (another) bridge."
Manatee County has asked the state to contribute $3 million toward the design of the new span and $4 million toward the design of the widening of Fort Hamer Road on the north side of the bridge.
He said the bridge project will come into far better view after the design portion of the process is complete.
"Then we will have timelines and an actual cost," he said. "We will know whether we are going to need to move a bunch of earth, or the other high dollar types of things."
Clark said he expected that commissioners will vote on the budgeting for the new span in September when they have more information. He said the design process normally takes about 18 months for such a project and it has been ongoing for about six months to this point.
He said a rough estimate would be that construction will begin in about three years with a completion date two years afterward.
The Upper Manatee River Road improvement project is expected to be complete in late 2023 or early 2024, so if the new bridge span doesn't open until 2028, it could be quite the period where a four-lane road will funnel into a two-lane bridge.
However, Clark said improvements on Upper Manatee River Road will help clear up the bottleneck at its intersection with S.R. 64 and he said much of the traffic going northward follows the Upper Manatee River Road's curve to the right where it meets Fort Hamer Road. That, he said, will ease traffic going over the bridge.
Since the first span of the bridge won't be affected by construction of the second span, Clark said it will minimize construction affects through that period.
