All about bridges...

Click here for a story about the rich getting their way at taxpayers expense. From the article:

“If I still lived there, I would be the inconvenienced. But I know from years of experience, it’s not a big deal to go down to the next bridge and go over. It’s not a big deal,’’ he said.
“The expense is just not warranted. Why saddle taxpayers with that kind of expense for the few people who would have been impacted in Palm Beach? It doesn’t make sense.’’
But Ecclestone said he reached out to Scott because “it was super-important.”
He said several thousand of Palm Beach’s 8,358 residents live on the northern half of the island.
“I talked to the governor through the whole process. I told him, ‘I think there’s an obligation to the state to keep this open.’ (Scott) said, ‘Llwyd, I will call you back this afternoon.’ He called me back and said, ‘Llywd, we don’t know how yet, but we will keep this bridge open.’’’
FDOT Secretary Ananth Prasad acknowledged Ecclestone’s role in keeping the bridge open while the new one is being built.

Click here for the Shiny Sheet's version of the story. From the article:

Town officials and residents vehemently protested, citing concerns about congestion and emergency responders getting stuck in traffic.
Mayor Gail Coniglio and resident Llywd Eccelstone took the complaints to Gov. Rick Scott and state DOT officials, who eventually reached a compromise: spending $9.4 million in emergency repairs so the bridge could remain open during construction.

Click here for how Lantana approached their bridge rebuilding situation - slightly more pragmatic than the Palm Beach response.

“(Engineers) said the problem with temporary bridge is, if you start pounding pilings around your old structure, sometimes they settle and you still can’t use (the temporary bridge). The same problems they’re having up there,” he said, referring to the Flagler Memorial Bridge that connects West Palm Beach to the town of Palm Beach.
In the first week or two after the Lantana Bridge project started in 2012, Stewart said, residents complained about having to cross the Intracoastal via the Lake Worth Bridge to the north or the Ocean Avenue Bridge in Boynton Beach to the south.
“I told them to suck it up,’’ Stewart said with a laugh. “It’s only 20 months.’’