Getting to Anna Maria Island may take longer for the next three years or more. The payoff, state transportation officials say, will be a bridge that never stops traffic for boats.
The Florida Department of Transportation will begin replacing the 1956 Cortez Bridge on State Road 684 (Cortez Road) in September with a 65-foot-high fixed span, eliminating the drawbridge openings that back up traffic to and from the island.
The estimated $123 million project will rebuild the bridge’s two traffic lanes and add 10-foot shoulders, 10-foot sidewalks and nearly a mile of roadway approaches from State Road 789 (Gulf Drive) to 123rd Street West.
Crews will build the bridge in two phases so both lanes can stay open throughout construction.
In the first phase, they will build the northern half of the new bridge alongside the existing drawbridge. Traffic will shift slightly south at both approaches, clearing room for crews to build the new approaches north of the current roadway. The phase also includes utility relocations and a new connection at Hunters Point Way.
Traffic will then move onto the new span, and the second phase will begin with demolition of the old bridge, followed by construction of the rest of the new one.
The work will be staged from a familiar Cortez landmark. Manatee County commissioners voted this summer to let the department’s contractor use the former Seafood Shack property as a staging area in exchange for improvements to the site once the bridge is finished.
The county bought the waterfront property in 2024, saying it intended to build a boat ramp and possibly a Gulf Islands Ferry landing there, and demolished the Seafood Shack restaurant and the adjacent Annie’s Bait and Tackle.
Cindy Lane is a staff writer for the Tampa Bay Beacons. She can be reached at clane@tbnweekly.com.