Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
The bridge to nowhere is no more
Fort Lauderdale made clear it didn’t want state’s $25 million project
FORT LAUDERDALE – It’s been called the bridge to nowhere. A total monstrosity. And a dumb waste of money.
Apparently, state officials heard the outcry.
No one really wanted a $25 million bridge that would have taken pedestrians in elevators to a walkway 80 feet in the sky, all so they could cross the New River near the U.S. 1 tunnel in downtown Fort Lauderdale.
The controversial plan, more than two years in the making, was dead as of Wednesday. In the end, too many people were opposed, from residents to business leaders to officials at Fort Lauderdale City Hall.
The bridge would have cost $9 million a year to maintain.
Fort Lauderdale Mayor Dean Trantalis had a hand in talking state transportation officials out of moving forward with the project.
“We had a meeting last week,” he said. “We talked about a lot of things. At the end of the discussion, they agreed that if the community does not support the bridge, we can find other alternatives that are less expensive and less intrusive.”
City commissioners objected to the bridge last June, telling state officials it would be a huge waste of taxpayer money.
Fort Lauderdale resident Ronald Castille referred to the bridge as a
“total monstrosity” that would have amounted to “another dumb governmental waste of money by the state and local politicians.”
Another resident, David Nusbaum, called it the bridge to nowhere.
Heavy hitters from the marine industry also voiced strong opposition to the bridge, pointing out that pedestrians have access to bridges at Third Avenue and Andrews Avenue.
Phil Purcell, CEO and president of Marine Industries Association of South Florida, complained last year that the bridge would hurt the $8.8 billion marine industry.
He urged planners to steer their attention to improving public transit and traffic gridlock.
“Once we get those things solved, then we can turn to cute little projects that hold no real value,” he said at the time.
Florida transportation officials came up with the idea after getting a letter from Broward Schools Superintendent Robert Runcie in January 2016. Runcie’s letter said the walkway through the U.S. 1 tunnel was too dangerous for children who live north of the tunnel but go to an elementary school on the south side of it.
By June 2017, state officials had already spent $111,540 on a 186-page feasibility study. Their next step required a more in-depth study that would have cost $1.4 million.
Fort Lauderdale commissioners say they didn’t get wind of things until June 2018, when the South Florida Sun Sentinel published a story about the state’s grand plans for a bridge over the New River.
The entire commission was “taken off guard” by the news, Trantalis said Thursday.
“The [former] city manager never brought that to us,” he said. “It’s something he kept under his hat. There was no community buy-in.”
Shipyard owner Bob Roscioli said he was happy to hear the project was dead.
“That’s crazy to spend that kind of money,” Roscioli said. “You already have a tunnel to go through. With all the things that need to be done in this town, there’s better ways to spend the money.”