The Alaskan "Bridge to Nowhere" is a monument to the delivery of pork, thanks to the Alaska delegation to Congress. It also shows the stupidity of building new bridges while not maintaining the ones we already have. The deadly collapse of a Minneapolis bridge should remind us that we have, paraphrasing the line from The Music Man, "trouble right here in Island City." Yes folks, three of Cedar Key's bridges are rated structurally deficient. The C Street Bridge, which leads to the center of our businesses, has a lower rating than the Minneapolis bridge. The so-called Fishing Bridge on Airport Road has the same low rating as the collapsed Minneapolis bridge. Once a bridge is built, there is an obligation to keep it in good condition. Like the Big Dock, Levy County is responsible for maintenance of our bridges. Must we wait for one of the bridges to actually fail before the problems are fixed? One suggested solution is to remove the C Street Bridge and install a cul-de-sac at the west end of Dock Street. Debate on that proposal could result in open warfare. The Fishing Bridge must certainly be replaced. Yet that bridge is 180th of 232 Florida bridges on the priority list for replacement. The Florida Department of Transportation does not expect to replace any Cedar Key bridge within the next five years. The four (plus) year delay in fixing the storm-damaged Big Dock exemplifies the problems of funding, designing, building and maintaining large public structures. The four-year delay also demonstrates the economic losses when failures occur. When the Florida DOT planned to cut down the trees along State Route 24, the people of Cedar Key vetoed the plan and accepted a lowered speed limit. Public outcry can get results. It is time for the people of Cedar Key to demand action from Levy County officials to fix the County's bridges before they fall completely down. | 