"They drive full cement mixers over it all the time, so it's not unsafe," Dave Baber told Your Observer this month. "And it acts as a traffic calming because it's one lane wide." Baber is the immediate past president of the Sarasota Alliance for Historic Preservation. He spent 13 years as director of the Sarasota County Department of Historical Resources and helped get the bridge onto the county's Register of Historic Places.
Anyone who drives Blackburn Point Road to north Casey Key knows the routine. You wait for the oncoming car, roll across the steel truss one at a time, and sometimes sit while a tender swings the span open for a sailboat. The debate over that crossing gets framed as history versus safety, or charm versus cost. On the engineering side, though, most of it comes back to one measurement: the 9.3 feet of clearance under the span.
Nine feet above salt water
Sarasota County's Blackburn Point Bridge Project site lists the bridge's navigation clearance as 51 feet horizontal and 9.3 feet vertical. The U.S. Coast Guard's guide clearances for that stretch of the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway are 90 feet and 21 feet.
That low height is behind nearly every problem the county lists. At a public meeting reported by YourSun, Phillips of Hardesty & Hanover, the firm running the county's roughly $2 million study, said sitting just 9 feet above salt water has caused a lot of corrosion. He said that wear is why the bridge is now limited to opening for boats only every 20 minutes. The county's study materials also point to deterioration in the splash zone, where salt water hits the structure. According to the same YourSun account, the pinion gear that lets the span swing has been badly bent and replaced at least five times in the past 30 years.
The obvious fix would be to jack the bridge up. A resident asked about that at the meeting. Phillips said it's technically possible, but the Coast Guard won't approve it because a taller structure would need more supports underneath, and another pier in the channel counts as a navigation hazard. The county's FAQ says the Coast Guard won't approve a new bridge with less than the 90-foot horizontal guide clearance. It also says the Coast Guard doesn't support a substantial rehabilitation that leaves navigation clearance inadequate.
What the clearance means for your Tuesday afternoon
The 9.3 feet also sets your wait time. Under federal drawbridge rules, the Blackburn Point Bridge at mile 63.1 opens on signal, except from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday, excluding federal holidays. In those hours it only has to open on the hour, at 20 minutes past and at 40 minutes past. If you're crossing at 4:15 on a weekday, you're near the 4:20 slot. On a Saturday, any boat that signals can stop you.
That schedule is a change from how the bridge used to run. The bridge's National Register nomination, prepared in 2001, described a tender working it on demand around the clock and averaging 700 openings a month. The same document describes the routine you can still watch from the approach. The tender sets the warning lights, bell and traffic barrier from outside the tender house, then walks to the middle of the span to work the swing controls. The swing drive was electrified in the early 1970s. The Alliance's 2025 Six to Save listing notes that the bridge originally had to be opened by hand crank, as reported by the Sarasota News Leader.
The roadway is the other constraint everyone feels. The county calls the bridge "functionally obsolete." It points to the single 16-foot lane, the lack of shoulders, sidewalks and bike lanes, and railings that don't meet current standards. The county FAQ also says the bridge still carries all Florida legal truck loads and is inspected at least annually. If deterioration continues, it could need load restrictions, and the FAQ notes that a lower limit could keep out typical service and construction trucks as well as EMS vehicles.
The options, and what each does with that height
The county's study is a Project Development and Environment study. It is weighing repairs under a no-build option, a replacement swing span, or a single-leaf bascule, which is a drawbridge that lifts. Both one-lane and two-lane designs are under consideration. The county project sheet, last updated November 2026, describes the goals as possible bike lanes, a pedestrian sidewalk, and "an increase in bridge height to reduce bridge openings and improve boating access."
| Path | Reported cost | What happens to clearance and daily use |
|---|---|---|
| No-build with repairs | About $31 million in repairs, per the study consultant, as reported by YourSun | Bridge stays at its current height. The first repair package, about $6.2 million, could close it for up to three months and add roughly five years of life |
| Replacement swing span or bascule | About $36 million to $57 million, depending on type and alignment, per YourSun | Modeled designs give 14 feet of vertical clearance. The permanent bridge stays on the same alignment, with a temporary bridge to the north that would affect Blackburn Point Park |
| Rehabilitation, as the Alliance proposes | About $17 million, per a YourSun account of the Bach Ornamental & Structural Steel analysis | Keeps the historic structure with added modern features, according to the review |
Even a new bridge would sit at 14 feet, well short of the 21-foot guide, so it would still open for taller boats, just less often. Phillips told the meeting that the no-build option was $6 million cheaper than the least expensive new bridge. He compared ongoing repairs to fixing a used car that will eventually need replacing anyway. The county FAQ gives a separate projection: operating and repairing the existing bridge would cost more than $20 million over 20 years.
Funding is part of the picture too. The project sheet says the work is funded for design only. Construction isn't funded in the five-year capital plan, and construction dates and costs are listed as TBD. Design started in fall 2024 and is scheduled to finish in fall 2027. The News Leader reported that $3.7 million had been appropriated to date for the "Blackburn Point Road Movable Bridge," with no new money through fiscal 2031.
Two readings of the same bridge
The county and the Alliance agree on the measurements and disagree on what they mean. The county's June 2026 public meeting presentation rated the bridge at condition state 3, "Serious." In the Alliance's September release, Bach Ornamental & Structural Steel president Nels Raynor said, "The county's own engineers acknowledge the bridge can be restored and rate it in fair condition," and called rehabilitation "the fiscally conservative option, by a wide margin." The Michigan-based firm reviewed county documents, inspection records, photos, videos and cost estimates. As of the Alliance's September release, its onsite review was still ahead.
Baber's case to Your Observer leans on history. He said the last substantial work was in 1995, when the bridge was swung open for several weeks, and that it has stayed in fair condition for about three decades since. He says guardrails could be attached to the historic structure to improve pedestrian safety.
The county frames its concern around access. "Out of the 180 bridges that we have, this is probably one of the most that keeps me up at night, because if something were to happen, we could potentially isolate people on the island," County Transportation Director Spencer Anderson said, according to YourSun. He also noted that the project came out of the voter-approved surtax referendum in 2022.
Public turnout has leaned toward keeping the bridge. Baber told Your Observer that about 100 people came to the June meeting, most of them in favor of preservation. As of late September, the Alliance had gathered nearly 2,000 signatures on its Change.org petition and paper petitions, and had gone door to door on the north end of Casey Key. At the commission's final budget hearing on Sept. 23, all but two of the public speakers addressed the bridge, the News Leader reported.
A centennial and a commission meeting, one day apart
According to its National Register nomination, the bridge was fabricated by the Champion Bridge Company of Wilmington, Ohio, and erected by Quinn and Powell Construction of Fort Lauderdale. It went into service around Dec. 15, 1926. The Alliance's listing calls it the last remaining bridge from Sarasota County's first infrastructure push during the 1920s land boom.
In an Oct. 13 statement to the News Leader, county spokesperson Emily Blaine said the topic is tentatively scheduled for County Commission discussion in December 2026, and that "no final decision about the bridge has been made." The commission's calendar shows its December regular meeting on Dec. 16, the day after the bridge's 100th anniversary. The county project site says its Parks, Recreation and Natural Resources and Libraries and Historical Resources departments would help honor the bridge's history whichever option goes forward.
How to follow it from here:
- Check blackburnbridgeproject.com for the study documents, the FAQ and the June 2026 meeting presentation.
- Watch the Sarasota County Commission's December meeting listing for the agenda as Dec. 16 gets closer.
- Read the Alliance's case and petition at preservesrq.org.
- Plan around the :00, :20 and :40 openings on weekdays from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
If you'd like to talk through how the bridge question fits into owning on the north end of the key, I'm glad to share what I'm following. keithcurcio.com Let's Connect.
