New Grand Lagoon Bridge Ground Breaking

With gold shovels in hand and orange hard-hats protecting their heads from the deep blue skies, several big names from Panama City Beach, Bay County and the State of Florida broke ground on the construction of the new Grand Lagoon Bridge and its accompanying roadway on the north and south side of the structure. Years in the planning, the Grand Lagoon Bridge was literally a pipe dream until just recently. Today, in discussion with several people from the Friends of Grand Lagoon, I was told that for a long time, it wasn’t believed that it would ever happen.

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Grand Lagoon Bridge Ground Breaking Thursday

Bring your cameras and your congrats for the ground breaking ceremony of the new Grand Lagoon Bridge takes place Thursday morning at 10 am. The weather is sure to be perfect and the future holds a higher bridge that will accept taller boats and more water under its spans.

In the works for quite some time now, the new Grand Lagoon Bridge finally got the green light when funding was secured over the summer. With over $15 million in the bank the County Comission awarded the construction contract to C. W. Roberts Contracting, Inc.

The ground breaking takes place at 10 am sharp on October 1, 2009 at Captain Anderson’s Restaurant in the Captain’s Room.

Construction Contract Awarded for New Grand Lagoon Bridge

These are exciting times, exciting times indeed. I can remember just a few short years ago attending a meeting about the Grand Lagoon Bridge reconstruction and seeing the cool plans, dreaming of a time when larger boats and more traffic could traverse the area, knowing it was all just hopeful aspirations. The plans had been in the works for years, but funding for the project was a pipe-dream, until just recently.

As quoted from our previous post on the new Grand Lagoon Bridge:

“Currently, Bay County has $19,462,409 to fund this project with $5,629,822 from local stimulus funds, $9,299,990 from state stimulus funds and $4,532,597 from grants that Bay County has been working on for years. Based on the cost estimate, Bay County has all the money necessary to fund the entire project.”

As of today, the Bay County Commissioners have awarded the construction contract of the Grand Lagoon Bridge Replacement and Roadway Widening to C. W. Roberts Contracting, Inc for $14,833,745.75. In addition, the Bay County Commissioners awarded the Construction Engineering and Inspection (CEI) contract for the Grand Lagoon Bridge Replacement and Roadway Widening Project to Metric Engineering, Inc. for $1,389,992.00.

Construction has been planned to start soon after Labor Day, beginning with the construction of a temporary bridge and the demolition of the existing structure. You can bet I’ll be there.