Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Friendship and Upper Tampa Bay Trail Updates


Looks like even the quarter-mile or so of open bridge access is now gone on the Friendship Trail. From the St. Pete Times:

Hillsborough and Pinellas counties have decided to close the entire Friendship Trail Bridge after receiving a final engineering report on its structural deficiencies.

While the middle of the bridge was closed in November, rendering it uncrossable, stretches on each side were left open for recreation. That changed Monday after a private engineering firm warned that any portion of the bridge could collapse.

The firm said it would cost $4.1-million to repair only the ends of the bridge that had been open; $30-million to repair the entire bridge; $12-million to demolish the bridge portion only; and $81.8-million to demolish the old bridge and build a replacement.

Also, Ellen Pierson sends in this item about Hillsborough County installing mile markers on the Upper Tampa Bay Trail.

1 comment:

GhostRider said...

Bummer...those catwalks on both ends were a great place to go fishing, especially at night -- planes landing at TIA flying right overhead, colorful nighttime characters and pods of dolphins swimming past. Plus, a myriad of weird fish to catch!