NOTICE OF WORK ON CAPSTAN CUT BRIDGE

Charlotte County inspects bridges within the county on a regular basis.  Shortly after Hurricane Ian, Charlotte County (CC) officials, with encouragement from the CHPOA Board, sent inspectors to look at the Capstan Cut Bridge.  This is the bridge that connects the Cape Haze Island to the mainland via Cape Haze Drive.  The CC inspectors identified some minor structural issues that need to be addressed.  We have been assured that the damage is not dangerous to current traffic.

As you may know, CHPOA has two neighbors that serve on the local Municipal Service Benefits Unit (MSBU).  First, thank you to Art Hansen and Bob Howell for serving our community.  Our representatives have reached out to Kelly Slaughter, the Manager of the Placida Bridge Rehabilitation Project.  She informed us that the project is currently out for the bid, which should take approximately 45 days.  Once the bidding phase is complete, the work will begin.

The repair itself should not take long and will not cause a permanent shutdown of the bridge.  There may be times when a lane will be closed, but they are not expecting a major inconvenience to our community.  The scope of the work will include replacing some panels and the top concrete layer, including backfill.  The top asphalt road will be assessed and may be replaced as well.  They may have to remove some neighboring trees that are impacting the structure of the bridge and the adjacent sea walls.  Once the structural work is complete, the County will be painting the bridge walls.  We hope to have more details after the MSBU meeting on April 12^th.