Project planned to begin in May 2027
On June 17, Sarasota County staff formally issued a solicitation for bids on building a new pedestrian bridge to replace a wooden structure on Siesta Key’s Midnight Pass Road, The Sarasota News Leader has learned.
The summary of the Invitation for Bids says the goal is for a contractor “to construct a steel truss pedestrian bridge with a deck, … approach slabs and sidewalks on Midnight Pass [Road].”
A document that the county’s Capital Projects Department released in June said the bridge design had been completed at an expense of $237,000. The work was handled by the Stantec consulting firm in Sarasota, the document noted.
Even though bids are being sought, that document explains, construction is not expected to begin until May 2027, after the traditional tourist season. The work is expected to be completed by the end of 2027, the document adds.
A note in the materials does direct the contractor to submit “a road and lane closure request permit … to Traffic Engineering for review and approval at least 21 days prior to [the start of construction].” The northbound lane of Midnight Pass Road in the affected area will have to be closed to facilitate the work on the project, the plans add. “Shift traffic onto the west side of the bridge in a one-lane, two-way traffic configuration, and use temporary signalization,” as provided for in the plans, the document says.
Project signs are to be placed on the southwest corner of the intersection of Higel Avenue and Midnight Pass Road and the northeast corner of Tropical Circle and Midnight Pass Road, the Stantec documents further note.
The bridge was one of the projects that the County Commission agreed to allow to proceed during the 2027 fiscal year, as the members engaged in a discussion during their June 17 budget workshop. That decision came during a nearly hour-long review of proposed initiatives that had at least partial funding linked to property tax revenue.
As the News Leader has reported, the commissioners remain concerned about the ramifications of the potential for 60% or more of voters statewide to approve a referendum on the Nov. 3 General Election ballot that would lower property taxes for residents with homestead exemptions.
The bids on the Midnight Pass Road Pedestrian Bridge initiative are due at 2:30 p.m. on Monday, July 20, the county’s Procurement Department staff has announced.
The Tribolet placard
In a related matter, on June 12, Vinod Sancheti, a project manager with the county’s Capital Projects Department, contacted leaders of the Siesta Key Association (SKA), noting, “The placard dedicating the wooden pedestrian bridge was requested to be salvaged by the Siesta Key Association. Do you have a preference to keep it in place [even though] it may not be visible from the new bridge or removed[?]”
Alternatively, Sancheti wrote, the plaque could be placed near the new bridge, or it could be given to the SKA for its own use.
“Please advise,” he concluded his email.
As the News Leader reported in August 2023, on Aug. 1, 2023, Spencer Anderson, then-director of what was the county’s Public Works Department, emailed Robert Luckner, now acting treasurer of the SKA, noting that Anderson and his staff were trying to determine how the pedestrian walkway ended up being constructed, “because we cannot find any permits.
Subsequently, Luckner told the News Leader, Catherine Luckner, president of the SKA, had learned some details about the bridge that she previously had not known: The walkway was dedicated to a former SKA director, Robert Webb Tribolet.
Robert Luckner sent the News Leader a copy of the document Catherine had located.
Tribolet, who graduated from the United States Military Academy with the Class of 1946, ended up reaching the rank of colonel in the U.S. Air Force, his obituary said. He died on Jan. 25, 1989 in Sarasota at the age of 63, the obituary added. His body was interred “with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery” in Virginia, the obituary noted.
A graduate of Staunton Military Academy in Virginia, the obituary continued, Tribolet “had his heart set on getting into West Point; however, his appointment by Senator Brewster did not come through as expected.”
Having to wait a full year before trying again to get an appointment, the obituary explained, “Trib,” as he was known, “decided to enroll at Texas A&M, thereby gaining more military school experience. This turned out to be a disaster and after missing some exams, he was placed on academic probation.”
Tribolet ended up volunteering for the draft in May 1943 and was told to report on May 16, the obituary continued. Then he was notified that he had been accepted at West Point and was to report on July 1, 1943.
During the same time, Tribolet’s father “was in the middle of the war on the Normandy beachhead. The father did survive,” the obituary said, “but naturally Trib was greatly distracted and unable to place full concentration on the demanding curriculum at West Point. Trib would readily admit that the main reason he chose to take flying as a cadet was to avoid the last few months of the year of mathematics. This decision was never regretted because he came to dearly love being a pilot in the US Air Force.”
When the Korean War broke out, the obituary said, Tribolet was at Clark Field in the Philippines. He “soon found himself as a wing maintenance officer in Tachikawa, Japan,” and he later served as an intelligence officer in Korea, the obituary added.
In the 1960s, having qualified to fly jets and having become an instructor pilot in T-33s and T-38s, he and his family spent three years in Buenos Aires, where he was an Air Force Mission training adviser to the Argentine Air Force.
Later, he ended up flying 250 night combat missions during the Vietnam War, the obituary continued.
In October 1968, he was assigned to the Pentagon, where he served for four years in various departments, including the Europe NATO Branch and the Joint Chiefs of Staff Department, the obituary pointed out.
He retired from active duty on July 1, 1972, following 26 years in the Air Force, and he and his family moved to Siesta Key.
On the Key, he engaged in “lots of community work,” the obituary noted. In fact, it said, he developed the disaster and the evacuation plan for Sarasota County.
After its directors discussed the placard issue last month, Robert Luckner replied to Sancheti of Capital Projects that they had decided to ask county staff to “reinstall [the placard] near the new pedestrian bridge on Midnight Pass over the Grand Canal.”
Luckner added, “Thanks for letting SKA be involved.”