$2.5-millioin project with ‘minimum scope’ expected to take four to five years to complete
During the Open to the Public comment period of the Sarasota County Commission’s regular meeting on March 26, in downtown Sarasota, five members of the public — all but one of them residents of Manasota Key — urged the board members to act as soon as possible on a plan to restore full road access to residents and visitors on that barrier island.
Last fall, Public Works Director Spencer Anderson reminded the board members during the meeting, an approximately 2,400-foot segment of Manasota Key Road “was completely washed out” by Hurricanes Helene and Milton, just north of the county’s Blind Pass Beach Park.
Those storms, he added struck the Key about a year after “we had just finished replacement of the road after [Hurricane] Idalia [wrought significant damage to it].” That project cost about $4.5 million, he noted, and it took about 120 days.
Given public concerns, the commissioners voted unanimously this week to direct the Public Works Department staff to proceed with constructing a temporary emergency access road on Manasota Key until a permanent structure can be built.
It is expected to take two years for the design process for the temporary road, Anderson told the board members during an approximately 12-minute presentation and question-and-answer exchange on March 26. Another two or three years is the estimate for construction, Anderson added, with a total expense of approximately $2.5 million. That figure, he explained, would cover what he called a project with “a minimum scope” that would provide two travel lanes.
“One lane over 2,000 feet is more of a risk than I suggest we undertake,” Anderson stressed to the board. With anticipated “temporary traffic lights over 2,000 feet — that’s almost half-a-mile — you’re going to get people jumping the lights, and that’s going to end up in — more than likely — head-on issues, and that’s something we would want to avoid,” he pointed out.
“The investment in adding another 8 feet of roadway would be well worth it,” Anderson said, “in order to minimize the risks to the public, if we were to proceed with a temporary road.”
During their regular meeting on March 11, he reminded the commissioners, they approved funding for the design process.
As The Sarasota News Leader has reported, county staff received $457,791 for that work from the Florida Department of Transportation, with the total design expense put at $527,239, as noted in a staff memo in the March 11 meeting agenda packet.
The new permanent road on Manasota Key, Anderson estimated, likely would cost between $40 million and $50 million.
Anderson also made the commitment that “We’ll see if we can skimp” and perhaps save money on the temporary road by using “some of the material that’s intermixed in the sand out there,” for example.
He explained during his presentation that Manasota Key Road is a federally designated road, but representatives of the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) have made it clear to county staff that that agency will not provide any financial assistance to the county for the temporary solution. “Their argument is there’s a valid detour, about a 14-mile route” to reach one end of the Key from the other.
“They’ve told us we’re on our own,” Anderson added.
Moreover, he said, “We don’t know of any kind of reimbursement package that might be available from the state.”
‘Hundreds of people trapped’
That morning, Manasota Key residents stressed to the commissioners that failure of just one of the two bridges to the island would leave “hundreds of people … trapped. No emergency services; no police; no fire[fighters]; no ambulance,” as Richard Hess put it.
Janet McIntyre, who said she and her husband live just south of Blind Pass Beach Park, pointed out, “Our close-knit community has literally been split in two” by the damaged road segment.
“We only have one bridge access to the north,” she continued, and one bridge access to the south. “If one of those bridges loses service,” McIntire emphasized, “we’re isolated from help.”
Hess, who lives in the 8000 block of Manasota Key Road, told the commissioners that if a hurricane were approaching, and one or both of the bridges were out of use, “Lives could be lost” before evacuation of the island could be completed.
Damian Ochab, a Charlotte County resident who is president of the South Manasota Sandpiper Key Association, pointed out, “Manasota Key Road is an evacuation and an emergency route” for residents of his county as well as Sarasota County residents.
Hess showed the board members a photo he had taken from his backyard of what he described as a 110-foot-long, repurposed military landing vessel named the Galway Girl that is being used by a marine contractor. “It’s all steel,” he noted of the vessel, and it has a deck capacity of 60 tons for cargo.
“If you look carefully,” Hess continued, “you’ll see a bulldozer on the front [of the ship in the photo].”
(The News Leader found that the vessel is owned by O’Sullivan Marine Equipment of West Nyack, N.Y. The company website says the vessel is 139 feet long.)
If that boat were to hit one of the bridges to Manasota Key, Hess emphasized, that bridge likely would be out of service for weeks.
Further, Hess pointed out, given the damage that Hurricanes Helene and Milton wreaked on the Key last fall, the reconstruction taking place on the island likely will entail far more traffic on the two bridges than they were designed to handle. “More bulldozers, more cranes, more giant cement mixers, probably more” would be headed over those bridges, he added.
During his presentation, Anderson pointed out that the Tom Adams Bridge — which serves as the access from the Englewood mainland to Manasota Key and Englewood Beach, as the Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office notes on its Facebook page — “should be pretty healthy,” as it last was rehabilitated in 2018.
However, Anderson continued, while the Manasota Key Bridge, on the northern end of the barrier island, has not had “a lot of problems” over the past five years, it is scheduled for rehabilitation in 2027. “There will be interruptions in traffic,” he added, as that work proceeds. “That does support the need for some kind of temporary access in the area where the road is washed out.”
The options and the vote
Anderson provided the commissioners three options for how to proceed:
- Keep in place the gates that county staff installed at each end of the damaged road segment after the 2024 hurricanes. Those are “to prevent people from driving on the beach,” Anderson noted, though he said that people already have been driving around the gates.
- Construct a temporary emergency access road with gates to keep people off of it unless a situation — such as the failure of one of the moveable bridges at either end of Manasota Key — necessitated that road’s use.
- Construct a temporary emergency access road without gates until construction of the permanent road could begin.
“Option 3’s the only option, in my mind, that makes any sense,” said Commissioner Ron Cutsinger, who represents District 5, which includes the portion of Manasota Key that is part of Sarasota County’s jurisdiction.
After announcing he favored Option 3, Commissioner Custinger said, “For me, it’s a public safety issue. We’ve got to get access to these folks to their homes.”
Moreover, he pointed out, “It’s access to some incredible amenities that the county has,” including The Hermitage Artist Retreat and Blind Pass Beach Park.
Cutsinger jokingly asked Anderson whether the temporary road could be completed within 120 days, the timeline for the repairs after Hurricane Idalia inflicted its damage.
“We’ll do our best,” Anderson replied.
Cutsinger laughed and told Anderson, “Great answer.”
Commissioner Tom Knight, who represents most of Venice in his District 3 territory, concurred with Cutsinger on Option 3. Having been in public service for 34 years — including three, four-year terms as Sarasota County sheriff — Knight added, “I’m not prepared to have an ambulance have to go up and around” a 14-mile detour to rescue someone with medical emergency.
Another speaker that morning, Patrick Smith, vice president of the Manasota Key Association, noted that the road damage does not just affect Manasota Key residents. “It’s Venice residents; it’s Englewood residents; it’s developments; it’s bikers; it’s hikers; it’s tourists.”
The closure of that section of the road, Smith added, is “a big stress for the area. It really is.”
“I’m happy to support this,” Chair Joe Neunder said of Cutsinger’s motion, citing his concerns, too, about public safety and residents’ access.
“A 14-mile detour?” Neunder then asked Anderson. “They actually tried to sell that?” Neunder said, referring to the FHWA.
“Yes,” Anderson responded.