There will be a new Pensacola Bay Bridge. In the 1980s and early 1990s, there was a push for a second Pensacola Bay Bridge–one that would connect with Highway 98 somewhere east of Gulf Islands National Seashore.
The Garcon Point Bridge was built and some thought it might relieve the traffic pressure through the City of Gulf Breeze. It didn’t. People traveling the “Three Mile Bridge” are going to and from home and work or want to go to Pensacola Beach.
A bridge authority was established in the mid-1990s and there was considerable discussion of where a second bridge would land on the Pensacola and Gulf Breeze sides. People fought over most of the suggestions. DOT District Secretary Prescott scuttled the authority when he announced the bridge still had a long life and he had the funds to widened and replace the current bridge.
That shifted the battle to how many lanes should the bridge have and what would be its impact be on the City of Gulf Breeze and Highway 98. The basic premise was a six-lane bridge would have to have eight lanes through Gulf Breeze and Highway 98 needed to be expanded to six lanes. There was some discussion of building an overpass over Gulf Breeze that went directly to the beach and Gulf Islands National Seashore. Business owners in Gulf Breeze and South Santa Rosa County protested. Nothing happened. The bridge still had a fairly good rating. Hurricane Ivan destroyed the Escambia Bay Bridge on I-10, which again shifted the focus away from Pensacola Bay.
Now 25 years after the first discussions of a second bay bridge, the community is faced with replacing the old bridge. The City of Gulf Breeze will hire a master planner to figure out how to cope with the changes. The City of Pensacola join in the study and look at how the changes will impact its “Restaurant Row” on Gregory St.