ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- A spectacular cable suspension bridge towering over the mouth of busy Tampa Bay will be dedicated this month with ceremonies focusing on the future rather than dwelling on a tragic past.
The new $250 million bridge -- its massive cables fanning out from two pylons -- replaces the twin spans of the Sunshine Skyway Bridge, one of which was knocked down by a freighter in a 1980 storm, killing 35 people, the second-worst bridge disaster in U.S. history.
'We are trying to look ahead,' said Florida Transportation Department spokeswoman Holly Waggoner of a planned Feb. 7 dedication. 'We have had six years to reflect on what happened in the past. We want it to be an upbeat event.'
'This is not a memorial service,' added Carol Wedge, St. Petersburg Area Chamber of Commerce official coordinating the activities. 'This is a celebration of the new bridge.'
The Skyway tragedy occurred when the empty phosphate freighter Summit Venture slammed into a bridge support in a sudden and violent early morning storm, dislodging a 1,260-foot section of the bridge that plunged 15 stories into the storm-tossed waters. Eight cars and a Greyhound bus were dumped into the water.
Government agencies generally agreed bad weather, coupled with the lack of a severe storm warning for mariners, contributed to the tragedy. The Coast Guard also said human error by harbor pilot John Lerro, commanding the freighter, and the ship's captain contributed to the tragic accident.
Lerro said he lost radar contact with navigational buoys and when he saw the bridge loom out of the fog, he ordered anchors dropped and the freigher into full reverse, but its forward speed carried it into the span.
Highway and bridge planners considered building a tunnel and removing the bridges, repairing the damaged span, or constructing a new bridge that would be higher and wider than the existing bridges.
They settled on a new bridge modeled after the Brotonne Bridge over the Seine River in France and built the largest pre-cast concrete cable-stay span in the Western Hemisphere with a 1,200-wide center span.
The new bridge, to open for traffic in March, is 4.14 miles long, but the total distance of bridge and causeways spanning Tampa Bay is about 11 miles.
Huge lights will illuminate the cables supporting the bridge, some as big as 8 inches in diameter. The cables are strung through pylons rising 430 feet above the water and when painted should be visible for miles at night.
'The bridge is not just an engineering marvel,' said dedication commission Chairman Pam Iorio. 'It is also visually spectacular when illuminated at night. It will become a tourist destination in itself.'
Transportation Department official Kathy Palmer said the project cost about $250 million, with another $15.5 million to be spent in the next five years to replace one of the drawbridges to the north of the main span and to bring the causeways up to interstate highway standards.
When the new bridge is open, the old bridge will be demolished and the two causeways on the southern end will become 8,000-foot fishing piers -- longest in the world.
Until the demolition begins later this year, motorists will be jarred by the sight of the eerie gap in the western-most span from which the 35 victims fell to their deaths.
Only one person survived. Wesley MacIntire escaped death when his pickup truck rode a section of the span down to the deck of the ship, then bounced into the water.
The disaster was surpassed only by the collapse of the 1,756-foot Silver Bay suspension bridge linking Kanagua, Ohio, and Point Pleasant, W.Va., Dec. 15, 1967. The exact death toll there was never determined, but 35 bodies were recovered.
The new bridge will provide a wider and higher entrance into Tampa Bay from the Gulf of Mexico. The main spans of the old bridge are 800 feet wide and 150 feet above the water. The new span ranges from a minimum of 175 feet to more than 180 feet above the water.
Bridge designers also developed a system to prevent future collisions from destroying any part of the bridge.
The six piers closest to the shipping channel are protected by rock-edge islands, and the two main piers are flanked by four 60-foot bumpers, called dolphins, filled with crushed stone and surrounded by steel to withstand an impact of up to 30 million pounds.
