Future of Little Pine Island Bridge damaged by Hurricane Ian

Lee County Commissioners are deciding whether to add seawalls to the Little Pine Island Bridge or entirely replace it.

Little Pine Island Bridge didn’t fare well during Hurricane Ian, especially its seawalls.

That BBQ Place owner, John Petrus, told WINK News he’s against the idea of entirely replacing the bridge. He’d rather Lee County simply fix the seawalls and be done with it.

“Once in a 100-year storm, they’re going way overboard on things that may not happen in our lifetime,” Petrus said.

Petrus said he’s owned That BBQ Place for years and explained why he doesn’t want to replace it.

“Normalcy, we just want normal around here,” Petrus said.

Keeping life normal, that’s what Petrus does for a living. His restaurant is designed to make customers feel like they’re eating in their family’s backyard.

“We don’t want a big grand bridge to cross a little water opening. Just keep the roads going keep life normal here,” Petrus said.

On the other hand, Mark Lutz, a fisherman, and nearby resident thinks the Little Pine Island Bridge is too old anyway and it might be safer to replace.

“I know one’s going to be more expensive, the other one, but depending on how long it’s gonna last, you’d probably be better replaced the whole thing,” Lutz said.

But something everyone on Pine Island wants to ensure is that traffic is not an issue and county commissioners agree.

“How can you replace a bridge you know, and how are we going to be able to get to and from home and work and all that kind of stuff. So if we can show them You know that maintenance of traffic plan to help answer their questions on the front end I think will help ease that,” Lee County commissioner Brian Hamman said.

“Either way they choose I’m okay with as long as they keep the ingress and egress open,” John Lynch, the owner of Blue Dog Bar and Grill on Pine Island, said.

The commissioners did discuss traffic plans and said they will be ready when construction begins. The best guess is that traffic will be impacted for four of the eight months the project will take to complete.