The insurgent drive to save the Friendship Trail Bridge stayed alive on Wednesday after the Hillsborough Board of County Commissioners voted unanimously to agree to a plan that would delay demolition, while floating the possibility of having the cost of a renovation go before taxpayers as a ballot referendum this November.
The story of this latest chapter to save the bridge is now well-known to CL readers. After staving off what appeared to be the imminent demolition of the iconic structure a few months ago, the County Commission gave the group led by architect Ken Cowart time to prove that they had a viable financial plan going forward, a plan that was completed early last month. The group called on the county to give them the $5.3 million already designated for the demolition, and let them create a public-private partnership to raise additional millions to rehabilitate the facility, which the state Department of Transportation announced four years ago was structurally unsound, and needed to be razed.
But with the fate of the bridge's life up to the respective governments of Pinellas and Hillsborough counties, nothing has been assured. Engineers with Pinellas County told their county commission that they were not impressed with the newly crafted plan, and recommended that the demolition go forward, a belief that Pinellas Board members endorsed.
And today John Lyons with Hillsborough's County's Public Works Department began the discussion by urging the same thing, saying the $4.95 million price the county would be spending (the rest would come from Pinellas) in a demolition bid from the American Bridge Company was a solid one, and the County should vote to take that bid now.
This article appears in Jun 21-27, 2012.