PINELLAS PARK, Fla. — Major changes could eventually be coming to one of the bridges that connect Tampa and St. Petersburg.
Right now, the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) is designing potential improvements for Gandy Bridge to benefit drivers, pedestrians, and cyclists.
Though the process is still in its infancy and lacks most of the funding it will need to proceed, Tuesday night, FDOT engineers presented their tentative vision to dozens of people during a public meeting at the Pinellas Park Performing Arts Center.
Its project focuses on a seven-mile span of Gandy Boulevard that runs from 4th Street N. in St. Petersburg over Old Tampa Bay to S Westshore Blvd. in Tampa.
According to FDOT, the project would add a third lane on both sides of Gandy Bridge. To make that happen, the existing westbound side would be widened. The older eastbound side would be demolished and rebuilt.
Kirk Bogen, an environmental management engineer with FDOT, said the department is also looking to make changes to the portion of Gandy Boulevard in Pinellas County — just west of the bay — where traffic congestion is most noticeable. According to FDOT, the current traffic levels on this stretch of Gandy Boulevard are already at an inadequate level and will only worsen with time.
FDOT’s potential changes would look to make traffic flow more efficiently through the portion of Gandy Boulevard near Derby Lane Greyhound Track.
“Not an express lane, but it’ll be separated — grade-separated — so that traffic, regional traffic, that wants to go from Tampa to St. Pete and don’t want to access the local business or beach area will be able to go from, pretty much, I-275 over to the Gandy — South Gandy — in Tampa,” explained Bogen.
Noah Adelson lives in Brighton Bay, a community located across Gandy Boulevard from the track. He is supportive of the FDOT project since it will look to alleviate frequent traffic congestion at the light where Gandy Boulevard meets his neighborhood’s access road, Brighton Bay Boulevard.
“We call it the light where you could solve the world's problems,” he said. “I mean, it is seven to nine minutes long at its worst.”
But the high schooler showed up to the Tuesday meeting to speak in support of the project for a different reason. FDOT’s redesign of Gandy Bridge calls for a multi-use trail on the westbound side. The 16-foot path would be separated from vehicle traffic and give pedestrians and cyclists like Adelson a safe way to cross the busy bridge.
Currently, the bridge does not have such an amenity. After his mother witnessed a fatal crash between a cyclist and driver last year, Adelson refuses to bike anywhere near the bridge.
“I don’t ride over that Gandy Bridge, because it’s just not safe,” he said. “It’s just really, really hazardous.”
During the meeting, FDOT did hear some concern about the project.
A representative from the Goodwill St. Petersburg store, which is located along Gandy Boulevard across from Brighton Bay, said she was concerned about what the changes would mean for the store’s donations, visibility, and accessibility.
Meanwhile, the owner of The Getaway, a tiki bar located near Gandy Beach, said that any expansion must not diminish access to the popular beach.
Tuesday afternoon, as he helped his daughter fly a kite on the bayside beach, Todd Williamson echoed that concern.
“I do love this little beach area,” he said. “If they expand, awesome, but just try to keep some of this little recreation area.”
According to Bogen, the expansion project would keep beach access intact.
“It won’t be as free, open parking on the beach as you can [now], but it’ll be within the curb area of the frontage roads along the beach area,” he clarified. “You’ll be able to pull off to the side and go out and walk out to the beach.”
According to FDOT, the project to widen Gandy Boulevard and Bridge would cost roughly $761 million. No funding has been secured for any construction or right-of-way acquisition, which means the project does not yet have a timeline and is still in its very early stages of study and design.
