Incident the second to occur this year
On Oct. 15, for the second time this year, a problem with the gate system of the Stickney Point Road drawbridge led to the stacking of vehicles on Midnight Pass Road and, ultimately, the redirecting of drivers to the Siesta Drive drawbridge, The Sarasota News Leader has learned.
In response to a News Leader inquiry about the incident, Patricia Pichette, communications specialist with the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT), wrote in an Oct. 17 email, “When the drawbridge opens, the gates lower, the locking mechanism releases, and the bridge lifts. When the bridge closes, the locking mechanism re-engages, and the gates lift. In this instance, although the locking mechanism engaged correctly, the signal confirming that it was secure did not reach the gates, so the gates remained closed. For safety reasons, the gates cannot open without receiving this confirmation signal. A maintenance crew was called to restore the signal, and once it was re-established, the gates opened as expected.”
Pichette added, “ FDOT certainly understands the importance of the Stickney Point Road drawbridge for functionality and community stability. The bridge is a crucial means for residents to re-establish access and normalcy and we are doing everything we can to ensure that repairs are done quickly and most of all, safely.”
Neal Schleifer, vice president of the Siesta Key Condominium Council, told the News Leader in an Oct. 16 email that the Stickney Point Road drawbridge problem the previous day produced “bumper to bumper traffic exiting [the] Key.”
In the earlier incident, which occurred on March 9, as the News Leader has reported, at 4:16 pm, a span lock was not fully driven into the locked position after the Stickney Point Road drawbridge opened, and the gate would not rise until the span lock was fully engaged. “It was quickly repaired and operational again at 4:54 pm.,” Pichette told the News Leader in the aftermath of that incident.
A November 1985 paper that the News Leader found online, presented by James M. Phillips III at the First Biennial Symposium and Exhibition on Movable Bridge Design and Technology, in Tallahassee, explains that span locks “are used to insure the continuity of bascule bridge [drawbridge] surfaces in the closed position. … End locks on double leaf bascule bridges are span locks.”
Phillips added, “Improper alignment of the locking system is commonplace.”
As evidenced by calls to 911, which the Sheriff’s Office’s Public Safety Communications center handled on March 9, and a Siesta Key Condominium Council newsletter, the “significant amount of traffic,” as persons characterized the situation in calls, led to long delays for drivers.
At 5:09:42 p.m., the 911 call log noted, “Bridge tender [advised] both gates are now functional.” At 5:14:03 p.m., the log added that the bridge was reopening.
The Sheriff’s Office provided the call logs in response to a News Leader inquiry about the situation that day.
Another Sheriff’s Office document — called a “case card” — said that as of 5:16:43 p.m., the traffic hazard had been mitigated and all of the Stickney Point Road drawbridge lanes had been reopened.
The Sarasota County School District’s annual spring break week officially began after the end of school on March 8, and spring break typically produces more visitors at Siesta Key Public Beach, Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office deputies on the barrier island have reported for years.
In a March 11 Siesta Key Condominium Council communication to members, Council Vice President Schleifer wrote that while the gate malfunction continued, “What ensued was chaos. Frustrated pedestrians and cyclists began to go over the median to cross on the other side, sometimes continuing in the roadway. Traffic onto the Key was at first released sporadically in waves. A jeep drove off the Key into oncoming traffic. Drivers began crossing the median, often over the curb and plants, heading back to the north bridge. Some were stuck and powered over or pulled back. Then traffic began driving backward on Stickney Pt. Road to reach the opening near CB’s [Saltwater Outfitters, which is located at 1249 Stickney Point Road, on Siesta Key] and turn around to drive toward the [Siesta Drive] bridge. People were out of their cars and pedestrians in the road.”
Sheriff’s Office personnel did not arrive on the scene until 5:30 p.m., Schleifer added.
During remarks over the past year to the Sarasota County Planning Commission and the County Commission on development issues involving Siesta Key, both Schleifer and Ralf Brookes, a Cape Coral attorney representing south Siesta resident James W. Wallace III, have stressed that the proper functioning of the Stickney Point Road drawbridge is vital to residents of the Key during hurricane evacuations.
A rehabilitation project has been underway on the bridge since early June. Pichette of FDOT told the News Leader in late July, via email, “The current work being performed on the Stickney Point Road drawbridge is [b]asically, maintenance (which in this case includes electrical, recoating the super and substructure, repainting and any structural repairs, if necessary). “This is the type of work FDOT does to protect bridge structures from the harsh marine environment.”
That project began on June 10; the contract calls for 202 days of work. In its Roadwatch report for the week of Oct. 20 through Oct. 26, FDOT noted, “Currently, due to hurricane recovery efforts, most daytime work is suspended. No overnight work is scheduled.”