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After 59 years, end is nigh for the Friendship Trail Bridge

 
SEPT. 17, 2015: The Friendship Trail Bridge that runs parallel to the Gandy Bridge shows signs of activity Thursday as crews prepare to demolish the structure. The work is expected to take about 16 months and cost $9.4 million.
SEPT. 17, 2015: The Friendship Trail Bridge that runs parallel to the Gandy Bridge shows signs of activity Thursday as crews prepare to demolish the structure. The work is expected to take about 16 months and cost $9.4 million.
Published Sept. 18, 2015

Terri Taylor has enjoyed a lot of Tampa Bay breezes and sunsets from the Friendship Trail Bridge.

As a child, when the span was still in use as the Gandy Bridge, the 44-year-old Tampa native cruised in her family's Ford Zephyr to visit her grandparents and nosh on hot dogs at the Coney Island Grill in St. Petersburg. As a teenager with a fresh driver's license, she felt the thrill of driving her little Mitsubishi Precis over the water. And when the bridge was reborn as a recreational trail, she skated and bicycled her way from Tampa to Pinellas County and back.

"I know that it's just a bridge, but it has sentimental value because I have so many fond memories," Taylor said. "It's going to be sad to see it go."

The demolition of the 59-year-old structure is under way, though it's actually more of a dismantling. Crews with American Bridge Co., the contractor hired by Hillsborough County, have already stripped the streetlights, handrails and catwalk from the bridge. This week, workers started cutting the center span into sections and could start hoisting pieces onto barges as early as today.

The bridge's demise marks the final chapter in a storied history punctuated by a final effort to save it.

When it opened in 1924 at a cost of $3 million, the original Gandy Bridge was the nation's largest over-water span. An additional span was added in 1956 and then a third in 1975, prompting efforts to save the original bridge for fishing and other recreation. The Pinellas County Commission at the time rejected the idea as too expensive.

The newest span was added in 1996. Citing structural decay, the Florida Department of Transportation closed the 1956 structure and planned to demolish it, but activists rallied to save the old bridge as an over-the-water recreational park. Hillsborough and Pinellas counties convinced the state to let it stand and give the counties the demolition money to use for upkeep.

The Friendship Trail Bridge opened in 1999, a new frontier for walkers, joggers, in-line skaters and bicyclists who finally had a safe way to cross the bay. Some 600,000 people used it each year.

"It was like a catharsis," said Neil Cosentino, a Tampa resident who was on the committee to save the bridge in 1997 and often walked on the Friendship Trail. "It was a beautiful experience."

Ken Cowart of Tampa never got to enjoy it. In 2008, Cowart and his 4-year-old son arrived at the bridge in 2008 to ride bicycles only to find that officials had closed it the day before. Engineers had deemed it unsafe after finding cracks in the lower parts of the span.

Cosentino reached out to Cowart, an architect, to review the engineering report. Activists formed a group to save the bridge, prompting the Hillsborough County Commission to halt demolition that had been slated for spring 2012. Strapped for cash and afraid of rising costs, Pinellas refused to contribute more than the $2 million it had already paid for the demolition.

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Cowart's group said the center span, or "hump," was sound and that the lower sections could be replaced for about $19.5 million. They offered to raise $13 million through private investors and wanted the county to chip in the rest and share liability. The county instead decided last year to move forward with demolition.

The Courtney Campbell Trail, a paved path along the Courtney Campbell Causeway opened its final segment earlier this year, offering another way to cross the bay safely. But it was supposed to be a companion to the Friendship Trail, Cowart said.

"It's such a waste of an asset and a resource," Cowart said. "It's a shame Hillsborough County didn't have the vision to do this because the Friendship Trail Bridge is the type of thing other cities are doing to be competitive to attract companies and the younger generation."

The bridge demolition, which is expected to take about 16 months and cost $9.4 million, is a tricky endeavor.

Because of its deteriorated state, engineers have placed a 3-ton weight limit on the bridge, so crews will mostly be working from barges, said Jason Boulnois, the county's construction service manager. They'll start from the middle and work in both directions toward the Pinellas and Hillsborough coasts, using two cranes to dismantle the bridge in 48-foot segments.

"You have to be strategic about what pieces you pull off in what order," he said. "If you pull of the wrong section at the wrong time it could offset the weight distribution and cause the bridge to collapse."

The concrete will be crushed and recycled. Most will probably be used for road base, Boulnois said.

In that way, at least, the old bridge will live on.

Contact Tony Marrero at tampabay.com or (727) 893-8779. Follow @tmarrerotimes.