Bridge Openings and Road Traffic Delays, Sarasota Bay, Gulf Coast
Commissioners gave Town Manager Dave Bullock direction to invite Coast Guard and FDOT officials to a future meeting to discuss bridge openings.
by: Kurt Schultheis Senior Editor
When New Pass Bridge goes up, and there’s not a boat in the water, Mayor Jack Duncan calls the bridge opening “incredibly frustrating.”
“You have a few boats in the water and thousands of cars backed up on the road, and the bridge opens without a boat in sight,” Duncan said. “It’s counter intuitive.”
2015 traffic counts
The Longboat Key Police Department’s license-plate recognition system has the ability to count the number of cars entering and exiting the island. Below is a snapshot of traffic counts so far this year:
January: 318,984
February: 520,568
March: 490,564
April: 559,289
May: 492,769
June: 420,091
July: 310,971*
August: 386,823
* A camera malfunction caused readings to not be counted for one week.
Key resident and retired U.S. Coast Guard Rear Adm. Steve Branham was asked by Commissioner Lynn Larson and Town Manager Dave Bullock to look into the drawbridge openings on the Key to see if they can be adjusted to ease seasonal traffic. Branham spent months perusing Coast Guard data and crunching traffic count numbers with resident Lenny Landau.
His conclusion at the Sept. 9 Longboat Key Town Commission regular meeting?
“New Pass Bridge and Longboat Pass Bridge are not a primary contributor to the traffic problem,” Branham said. “It’s opening once a day on average when you look at the numbers. It’s very difficult to convince the Coast Guard and FDOT we have a problem with a bridge that averages opening once a day on average.”
But the Town Commission will continue to press the issue, noting the island’s two bridges go up many times just for maintenance and not for boat traffic.
By the Numbers
13 – Cars per minute crossing New Pass Bridge in March 2015
20,000 – Estimated cars per day crossing New Pass Bridge during season
7 – Minutes it takes for bridge to open and close
17 – Steps a bridge tender must follow to open and close the bridge
387 – Openings for New Pass Bridge in 2014
32 – Average openings a month for New Pass Bridge
For the week of Jan. 24 this year, Branham noted New Pass Bridge opened 18 times, but only five of those times were because boats were in the water.
Branham told the Longboat Observer Tuesday that FDOT has agreed not to open the bridge for maintenance from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m.; 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. and 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.
“That’s a siginificant amount of time the bridge won’t open for that purpose,” Branham said.
Branham explained it would cost the Coast Guard a premium amount to perform maintenance openings at night instead of during working hours.
Bridge openings
The New Pass Bridge opens every 20 minutes when boats are present, which can be up to three times an hour between the hours of 7 a.m. and 6 p.m. Between 6 p.m. and 7 a.m., the bridge must open on signal with at least three hours’ notice. The Longboat Pass Bridge opens on demand for boaters. The Cortez Bridge, which connects Bradenton Beach to mainland Manatee County, opens on demand every 20 minutes between May 16 and Jan. 14 and every 30 minutes on demand from Jan. 15 through May 15.
But Duncan says it’s worth pressing the issue further and even deciding if it’s worth the town helping to pay the extra cost to perform night maintenance openings.
Younger agreed.
“Motorists get frustrated when they’re sitting and sitting and don’t even see a boat go through,” Younger said.
Commissioners gave Bullock direction to invite Coast Guard and FDOT officials to a future meeting to discuss the issue. http://www.yourobserver.com/article/bridge-openings-don%E2%80%99t-clog-traffic-study-shows
Michael Lieberum
Seventh Coast Guard District
Bridge Branch
Operations Section
305-415-6744
Comments from Cruisers (5)
In reply to Brian.
First the proper term is “Special Anchorage” and according to the law an anchor light isn’t required. From looking at the chart the actual area is a bit on the small side and if you were outside the designated limits a light would be required. One other point, the Cruisers Net chart for this area shows three anchorages – only the one next to the canal is a “Special Anchorage”.
My own thought regarding this anchorage is that I would use an anchor light any way just to be safe.
§ 110.1 General.
(a) The areas described in subpart A of this part are designated as special anchorage areas for the purposes of rule 30 (33 CFR 83.30) and rule 35 (33 CFR 83.35) of the Inland Navigation Rules, 33 CFR Chapter I, Subchapter E. Vessels of less than 20 meters in length; and barges, canal boats, scows, or other nondescript craft, are not required to sound signals required by rule 35 of the Inland Navigation Rules. Vessels of less than 20 meters are not required to exhibit anchor lights or shapes required by rule 30 of the Inland Navigation Rules.
(b) The anchorage grounds for vessels described in Subpart B of this part are established, and the rules and regulations in relation thereto adopted, pursuant to the authority contained in section 7 of the act of March 4, 1915, as amended (38 Stat. 1053; 33 U.S.C. 471).
(c) All bearings in the part are referred to true meridian.
(d) Geographic coordinates expressed in terms of latitude or longitude, or both, are not intended for plotting on maps or charts whose reference horizontal datum is the North American Datum of 1983 (NAD 83), unless such geographic coordinates are expressly labeled NAD 83. Geographic coordinates without the NAD 83 reference may be plotted on maps or charts referenced to NAD 83 only after application of the appropriate corrections that are published on the particular map or chart being used.
Jim Davis
Thank you very much! Your assistance is appreciated. Stay safe!
The anchorage NE of marker 11 is NOT a designated special anchorage. It is merely an anchorage, plain and simple, and there for anchor lights and day shapes are required.
There is a designated special anchorage a little further east. It extends across the small cove between Snead Island Boat Works and the Bradenton Yacht Club. This anchorage is very small and shallows quickly and is thus nearly unusable by larger cruising vessels. We’ve stayed there and we had the whole place to ourselves; most cruisers prefer the anchorage you mentioned (the one with the abandoned fishing trawler in it. Again, that anchorage is *not* designated and does not enjoy any special exemption for lights and day shapes.
Thank you Sean! I appreciate your help! Stay safe!
Better to err on the side of safety. Use the anchor light