Structure E

RANT
I mention this in my Anna Maria Island Post, but it requires a full – out rant. There are two drawbridges that a sailboat needs to pass through from Boca Ciega Bay to get to the north end of Tampa Bay/Tierra Verde side of the intracoastal waterway. I’ve only lived in Gulfport a year, but ever since I’ve been here both Structure C (north bridge) and Structure E (south bridge) would open every 20 minutes on request. Recently, some brilliant effing decision maker(s) have changed the opening time of only the south bridge to every half hour. What this means is, that if you are at the north bridge heading south, by the time they stop the cars, open the bridge at the 20 minute mark, you get through, and then the south bridge opens about 5 minutes later. Not near enough time unless you have 300 HP on your too-tall-to-go-under speed boat. So now you are half way to the south bridge and it doesn’t open for like 20 damn minutes (It doesn’t work well at the bottom of the hour if you are headed north either). With the old coordinated times our little 8 horse outboard could get our boat to the next bridge with a few minutes to spare. I thought it was brilliant.  When something works smoothly, always make sure to screw with it.  We’re guessing a wealthy Tierra Verdian didn’t like sitting in their beamer for a few minutes. I can’t possibly believe it’s a budget thing either. They found millions of dollars to pump sand up on Indian Rocks Beach and then watch a storm wash it all away in less than a year. Cutting out one optional opening every hour can’t be that big of a cash saver.