Legislative support continues to build for moving Northwest Florida’s Garcon Point Bridge into the state turnpike system.
The House Infrastructure & Tourism Appropriations Subcommittee on Tuesday backed a wide-ranging Department of Transportation bill (HB 1305), sponsored by Rep. Shane Abbott, R-DeFuniak Springs, that would lead to shifting the Santa Rosa County toll bridge into the turnpike system.
The bridge was the subject of a long-running legal fight between bondholders and the state because the bridge did not generate enough toll revenue. The Department of Transportation last year agreed to pay $134 million to take control of the bridge and to end the litigation.
The Santa Rosa Bay Bridge Authority, which was created by the Legislature in 1992, issued bonds in 1996 to build the bridge over part of Pensacola Bay. The lack of toll revenue to fully pay bondholders was complicated by the fact that the authority effectively became defunct in 2014.
The proposal must still get approval from the House Infrastructure Strategies Committee before reaching the House floor. The Senate version of the bill (SB 1250) is working its way through the committee system.