Pensacola Bay Bridge Reopening Ends Economic Decline in Gulf Breeze

While commuters see relief with the opening of the Pensacola Bay Bridge, poor traffic flow has once agian become a problem in Gulf Breeze, especially with the limited re-opening of the bridge to only 2 lanes in certain areas.

By Gulf Breeze Sentinel

Gulf Breeze Sentinel, Copyright 2021

admin@gulfbreezesentinel.com

Gulf Breeze once again connected with highway vital to businesses.

On the early morning of May 28, 2021, residents of the City of Gulf Breeze, as well as residents living outside of the city, woke up to very good news: that the Pensacola Bay Bridge is Re-opened. Residents who lived east of Gulf Breeze especially rejoiced, as they now realized that the gridlock as a result of the closure of the bridge would be no more. For small business owners within the city limits, the long drought of customers was over, putting an end to a slump in the local economy since March of 2020. Business shuddered since September reopened with joy and glee.

Gulf Breeze, after the closure of the bridge, is both a more populated place, and a more desirable place to be compared to Gulf Breeze before the closure of the bridge. 2 New hotels were established, hundreds of people entered bidding wars to secure property, and hundreds of acres of land are to be further developed.

However, while we can see the light at the end of the tunnel, the full effects of the opening of the bridge will not be felt until the bridge is fully re-opened. At points of the bridge, there are only 2 lanes, a major choke point inhibiting the flow of persons from Gulf Breeze to Pensacola. Although significantly better than the 1-2 hour commute to Downtown Pensacola from Gulf Breeze using the woefully inadequate Garcon Point Bridge, it still can be improved further.

When the bridge was opened, almost all of the day, there was severe backups. Reckless drivers going way above the 35MPH posted speed limit, road rage when the 2 lanes merge to 1, and other incidents were a major contributer, especially as the vacationing Memorial Day Crowd made thier ways home after their vacations.

Unfortunately, while it was a long wait for the bridge to re-open, some of the small businesses of our area could not afford to stay closed for much longer past the originally forcast March 2021 re-opening. Dog House Deli on the beach, and even Taco Bell and Subway back in Gulf Breeze had to shut their doors for good.

That being said, the worse of “Bridgegate” “Bargegate” or “Skanskagate” are now well behind us. As we look to the future, we must learn from our mistakes. We must use these experiences to inform decisions on how to award future bridge contracts in particular, among many other things, to make sure this will never happen agian to the people of Gulf Breeze.