... and that’s why the bridge was backed up

On Tuesday morning the Boca Beacon office started getting phone calls about traffic on the Causeway backing up. Wayyy up.

Why do they call us? To find out what’s going on, of course. We were here, in the office.

We didn’t know. When we got a hold of Gasparilla Island Bridge Authority Executive Director Jim Cooper, he said he had just found out about it as well. A board member had contacted him about it, and he made sure that the utility company who decided it was perfectly all right to shut down the road without mentioning it to GIBA.

It wasn’t. And people weren’t happy.

At all.

From about 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., traffic was backed up, both ways, as workers tried to manipulate power lines and huge pieces of conduit. To add to motorist distress, there was a large amount of boats waiting at the bridge, so bridge openings were up.

“This is part of the whole utility coordination issue,” Cooper said. “Unfortunately, it wasn’t coordinated with me.”

It was a fluke, and not to be expected again in the near future.

GIBA will be doing a second survey at all three toll booths, beginning March 15 for one week.

Feel free to fill it out again, and try to win that 30-day toll pass.