Sunshine Skyway Bridge

The **Bob Graham Sunshine Skyway Bridge**, often referred to as the **Sunshine Skyway Bridge** or simply **the Skyway,** is a cable-stayed bridge spanning the Lower Tampa Bay connecting St. Petersburg, Florida to Terra Ceia. The current Sunshine Skyway opened in 1987 and is the second bridge of that name on the site. It was designed by the Figg & Muller Engineering Group and built by the American Bridge Company and is considered a symbol of Florida.

The four-lane bridge carries Interstate 275 and U.S. Route 19, passing through Pinellas County, Hillsborough County, and Manatee County. It is a toll road, with a $1.50 toll assessed on two-axle vehicles traveling in either direction and collected via cash or the state's SunPass system.

The original bridge opened in 1954 and was the site of two major maritime disasters within a few months in 1980. In January 1980, the United States Coast Guard Cutter *Blackthorn* collided with the tanker *Capricorn* near the bridge, resulting in the sinking of the cutter and the loss of 23 crew members. In May 1980, the freighter *MV Summit Venture* collided with a bridge support during a sudden squall, resulting in the structural collapse of the southbound span and the deaths of 35 people when vehicles plunged into Tampa Bay. Within a few years, the damaged span was demolished, the surviving span was partially demolished and converted into a long fishing pier, and the current bridge was built.

## History

### Original bridge

The original two-lane bridge was built by the Virginia Bridge Company and opened to traffic on September 6, 1954, with a similar structure built parallel and to the west of it in 1969 to make it a four-lane bridge and bring it to Interstate Highway standards. Opening of the newer span was delayed until 1971 for reinforcing of the south main pier, which had cracked due to insufficient supporting pile depth. The second span was used for all southbound traffic, while the original span was converted to carry northbound traffic.

The old bridge replaced a ferry from Point Pinellas at the southeastern tip of St. Petersburg to Piney Point located just north of Port Manatee. US 19 was extended from St. Petersburg to its current end north of Palmetto.

### 1980 collapse

The collapsed original bridge on May 9, 1980, after the *Summit Venture* collision

The current bridge (top) and the old bridges. The piers of the current bridge are protected by structural dolphins. The collapsed bridge is under demolition.

The southbound span (opened in 1971) of the original bridge was destroyed at 7:38 a.m. on May 9, 1980, when the freighter MV *Summit Venture* collided with a pier (support column) during a sudden squall, sending over 1,200 feet (370 m) of the bridge plummeting into Tampa Bay. The collision caused six cars, a truck, and a Greyhound bus to fall 150 feet (46 m) into the water, killing 35 people. One man, Wesley MacIntire, survived, although, contrary to belief, his Ford Courier pickup truck did not land on the deck of the *Summit Venture* and roll into the water; rather, it flew into the hull on the port side, ricocheted off and sank. He sued the company that owned the ship, and settled in 1984 for $175,000 ($431,000 today). Several other drivers - including former Major League Baseball player Granny Hamner - were able to stop their vehicles before reaching the gap in the roadway.

John Lerro, the harbor pilot who had been steering the ship, was later cleared of wrongdoing by both a state grand jury and a Coast Guard investigation. A microburst had suddenly hit the freighter with torrential rains and 70 mph (110 km/h) winds as it was in the middle of a turn in the shipping channel nearing the bridge, cutting visibility to near zero and temporarily rendering the ship's radar useless. Lerro put the ship's engines into full reverse and ordered the emergency dropping of the anchor as soon as he realized that the freighter was out of the channel, but the bow still hit two support piers with enough force to cause a portion of the roadway to collapse. The south main pier withstood the ship strike without significant damage, but a secondary pier to the south was not designed to withstand such an impact and failed catastrophically.

### Aftermath

After the *Summit Venture* disaster, the southbound span was used as a temporary fishing pier and the northbound span was converted back to carry one lane in either direction until the current bridge opened. Before the old bridge was demolished and hauled away in barges, MacIntire (the only survivor in the collapse) was the last person to drive over it. He was accompanied by his wife, and when they reached the top of the bridge, they dropped 35 white carnations into the water, one for each person who died in the disaster. Both the main spans of both the intact northbound bridge and the damaged southbound bridge were demolished in 1993 and the approaches for both old spans were made into the Skyway Fishing Pier State Park. These approaches sit 1⁄2 mile (800 m) to the south and west of the current bridge. The approaches of the 1950s span were demolished in 2008.

Gov. Graham's idea for the design of the current bridge won out over other proposals, including a tunnel (deemed impractical due to Florida's high water table) and a simple reconstruction of the broken section of the old bridge that would not have improved shipping conditions. The new bridge's main span is 50% wider than the old bridge. The piers of the main span and the approaches for 1⁄4 mile (400 m) in either direction are surrounded by large concrete barriers, called "dolphins", that can protect the bridge piers from collisions by ships larger than the *Summit Venture* like tankers, container ships, and cruise ships.

### Demolition of former bridge

In 1990, FDOT awarded the winning bid to Hardaway Company to demolish all steel and concrete sections of the older Sunshine Skyway Bridge. The scope of the project required that all underwater piles and piers, and surface roadway, girders, and beams be dismantled. Special care had to be taken in removing underwater bridge elements near the shipping channel. Additionally, the concrete material, deck sections, pilings and steel girders were to be collected in order to be placed offshore and along the remaining bridge approaches to become artificial reefs for the new planned state fishing park. The main bridge span had to be removed in one piece in order not to block the main shipping canal leading to the Port of Tampa.

During the disassembly work of the bridges’ structural steel members, several difficult engineering challenges had to be resolved: the order of disassembly, a safe method for detonating charges on concrete and steel members in a publicly open and difficult to control area such as the Tampa Bay, and the development of a safe methodology for the removal in one piece of the bridge’s main span and concrete piers.[*citation needed*]

After extensive research, the engineering team developed a 4 × 1:16 ratio pulley system where each of the four corners of the span was connected to two 25-ton winches (bolted to the pavement of the deck). These winches controlled the descent of the main 360-foot (110 m), 608-ton span to a barge anchored 150 feet (46 m) below. As part of the project design, the engineering team developed a real-time, computerized, synchronized descent calculator and control program to help each of the two winch management teams ensure that all winches were synchronized at the same 30 feet (9.1 m) per minute descent rate. The operation was executed successfully in 2+1⁄2 hours despite adverse weather conditions.

## Issues

### Suicides

At least 310 people have committed suicide by jumping from the bridge or its predecessors into the waters of Tampa Bay. An estimated 43 others have survived. Many other missing persons are suspected of having jumped from the bridge but their deaths could not be confirmed as no bodies were recovered.

In response to the high number of suicide attempts from the bridge, the state of Florida installed six crisis hotline phones along the center span in 1999, and began 24-hour patrols. As of 2003, the call center at the Crisis Center of Tampa Bay received 18 calls from potential jumpers, all of whom survived, according to a 2003 *St. Petersburg Times* report.

In 2006, a feature film *Loren Cass* was released, which depicted a suicide jump off the Sunshine Skyway. Two years later, a second filmmaker, Sean Michael Davis of Rhino Productions, was inspired by his haunting experience witnessing a woman jump off the bridge so quickly that no one could intervene, to create a not-for-profit film titled *Skyway Down*. His objectives: to deter other potential jumpers by " 'punch[ing] them in the face' with interviews with survivors and family members", to give them "hope and to try to de-glorify the romanticism of the bridge", in part by informing those who have "mulled a leap to know about the bloody, battered aftermath."

In January 2020, FDOT announced they will install the Skyway Vertical Net, a vertical barrier in an effort to deter suicide attempts. Construction for the project is expected to begin in fall 2020 and completed by early 2021. The vertical barrier will be placed on the outside walls of the bridge and extend vertically 8 feet (2.4 m) from the side barriers. It will span each side of the bridge for about 1.5 miles (2.4 km).

As part of any Florida controlled-access highway, pedestrians and bicycles are prohibited. Stopping on the bridge for any non-emergency, including sightseeing, is prohibited. Traffic on the bridge is monitored by the Florida Highway Patrol, and a stopped vehicle, bicyclist, or pedestrian will elicit a police dispatch.

### Corrosion

A major problem with the Sunshine Skyway Bridge is corrosion of the steel in the precast concrete segmental columns on the high level approaches. Because the segments are hollow, workers were able to enter the bridge superstructure in 2003 and 2004 to reinforce the corroded sections of the bridge, ensuring its future safety. Another problem arose around 2005–06 when several news bureaus reported paint discolorations on the bridge's cables. These paint splotches and patches were a result of touch-ups that were performed sometime in 1998 but began to show through as a result of using newer, environmentally-safe paint. The change in the paint's composition caused it to fade faster than expected.

From 2006 to 2008, Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) hired a contractor to perform the first full repainting of the bridge since it opened in 1987. The work included repainting the bridge's 42 steel cables one consistent shade of yellow and rehabilitating the lighting system at the summit of the bridge.

### Low clearance

A 2014 FDOT study noted that the Skyway's low bridge clearance prevented larger vessels from using the Port Tampa Bay terminals, but made no recommendation about options as the air draft of most new cruise ships exceeds the bridge's height limit at 180 feet (55 m).

## Traffic

### Usage and tourism

The former and current bridge have been featured in various forms of media. The original Sunshine Skyway Bridge is featured in *Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar* and the opening credits to *Superboy*. The current bridge has provided the setting for several films such as *Loren Cass* and *The Punisher*. The bridge also served as plot devices to various novels such as Dennis Lehane's 1997 novel *Sacred* and Ben Bova's 2005 novel *Powersat*. The bridge is also the subject of the song "Skyway Avenue" by We the Kings.

The United States Postal Service featured the bridge in 2012 on a Priority Mail postage stamp. Carl T. Hermann worked on the painting and the digital illustration was created by artist Dan Cosgrove.

In 2005, an act of the Florida Legislature officially named the current bridge the Bob Graham Sunshine Skyway Bridge, after the former Governor of Florida and then U.S. Senator who presided over its design and most of its construction. According to sources[*which?*], he was inspired to suggest the current design by a visit to France, where he saw a similar cable-stayed bridge, the Brotonne Bridge. The original bridge was dedicated to state engineer William E. Dean, as noted on a plaque displayed at the rest area at the south end of the bridge.

In November 2017, work began on installing decorative lighting to the Skyway's columns, main spans, and sloped spans. The $15.6 million lighting project provides a visual aesthetic while also enhancing safety and security by providing more light to the underside of the bridge from dusk to dawn. Over 1,800 LEDs were installed along 1.7 miles (2.7 km) of the bridge which cycles through animated routines. The lighting project was completed in October 2019 and funded by FDOT through collected toll fees.

### Skyway 10K

On January 11, 1987, the Skyway Bridge opened-up to 10,000 runners, joggers and walkers before the bridge was opened to motor vehicle traffic the following week. Runners participated in four races that ran simultaneously across the bridge, with two races going southbound and two races directed northbound.

On March 4, 2018, in partnership with the Armed Forces Families Foundation, the Skyway Bridge was closed for the Inaugural Skyway 10K. In contrast to the one-time race in 1987, the Skyway 10K has been held annually since 2018.