GIBA engineering meeting this week

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A GIBA engineering meeting will also be held in the meantime, on Wednesday, April 18 at 2 p.m. in the Boca Grande Community Center Auditorium.

According to Jim Cooper, GIBA’s executive director, this will be the first engineering meeting with Peter Strong as the new chairman and Tim Yonker as a new board member. Plans for that meeting include going over the bridge design and development report, and discussing the rules that the bridges are being built under.

“We’re not quite to 30 percent of the design, but almost,” Cooper said. “This will be the first set of design plans to show what it will look like, and Hardesty and Hanover will be there to present some sort of updated cost estimate on the swing bridge.

“They have talked to some local marine contractors and have obtained some pricing.”

After hearing all of the information, the engineering committee is expected to make a recommendation to pass along to the board at the April 25 meeting. Until the board approves the recommendation, there will be no progress on the design plan.

At the April 25 meeting Jonathan Hart from Wilbur Smith will give a presentation comparing the two traffic studies that have been done on the causeway within the last few months.

As far as the public opinion survey, Cooper said no results have been tabulated yet. He said that only registered voters got the surveys in the mail, and the “drop dead” date to have the surveys back to the authority is Monday, April 16.