Manatee County staff places steel plates over affected area
Just after noon on Friday, Feb. 16, Sarasota County staff announced that Manatee County staff had provided plans to Sarasota County staff that would allow the reopening of one lane of the Myakka Road section that Sarasota County’s Public Works Department ordered closed to traffic on Feb. 14.
Those plans were signed and sealed by a Manatee County professional engineer licensed in Florida, the Sarasota County advisory said.
“The single lane of traffic covers a short distance of Myakka Road between the Myakka River and Clay Gully Road,” the Feb. 16 Sarasota County advisory added. The remainder of Myakka Road will continue to operate with two lanes, the advisory pointed out.
The Manatee County plan showed that steel plates would be placed over the three large culverts that the Sarasota County Public Works staff had found to be deteriorated to the point that it no longer was safe for vehicles to travel on that part of the road, the Feb. 16 advisory explained.
The culvert crossing consists of three corrugated steel plate pipes, with each pipe having a span of approximately 12 feet, the initial Sarasota County news release noted. “The visual inspection of the culvert by engineers revealed severe structural deterioration.”
The affected area is between Hancock Road and Clay Gully Road, that release said.
Sarasota County Public Works staff had “taken no exception to Manatee County’s plan,” the Feb. 16 advisory noted.
Traffic flow through the one-lane section is being controlled by temporary signals, the Feb. 16 report pointed out.