Newspaper Page Text
Page 12, December 2, 2024, The Islander
What bridge?
This will likely be another ram
bling hodge podge of a Back Talk this
week - it’s been a bit slow since the
election, although Trump has hit the
ground running and has already met
with Canadian Prime Minister Jus
tin Trudeau and spoken with Mexi
can President Claudia Sheinbaum.
By the way, what kind of name is
Sheinbaum for a Mexican anyway?
It’s Yiddish for goodness sakes!
And while Claudia is of Latin ori
gin, I’m not sure I believe that’s her
real name anymore than I believe
Whoopi Goldberg is her real name.
Before I get to far astray, I did
want to comment on the Georgia De
partment of Transportation’s (DOT)
closing of the little bridge on Hwy. 17
over the mighty Cypress Mill Creek.
The bridge, and even calling it a
bridge is a stretch, is located between
the 4th St. and SPUR 25 (aka Golden
Isles Parkway) intersections.
It is at this particular point, just
south of the bridges, that Hwy. 17 is
split with a grass median.
Word of the road closure came
down form the DOT about two weeks
ago on Wednesday, November 20.
It wasn’t as much of a notification
from the DOT as it was an item that
Glynn County Communications Di
rector Katie Baasen found on a DOT
website and distributed.
It seems the DOT was unaware the
bridge was in such bad shape until “a
maintenance contractor on site iden
tified unforeseen bridge repairs were
needed.” Essentially their words.
Apparently the deterioration is so
far along the DOT deemed it neces
sary to shut down the north bound
bridge immediately.
The detour around this heavily
traveled section of Hwy. 17 involves
Community Rd., 4th St., Hwy. 341,
Altama Ave., Parkwood Ave., L St.
and 4th Ave. to the south if you want
to go that far.
It’s important to let you know
that the DOT has paved a portion of
the grass median to the south of the
bridges and is now re-routing north
bound traffic over to the south bound
bridge. Caution is still required as
north and south bound through this
short stretch is one way in each di
rection, but it should still take some
pressure off the detour roads and
shorten people’s travel time.
Years ago I saw a bumper stick
er on a car that read, “Welcome to
Georgia - owned and operated by the
DNR.”
I’ve always considered the DOT,
along with the state’s Department of
Natural Resources (DNR) were the
two most powerful, ‘we-can-do-what-
ever-we-want’ agencies in the state.
The reason they can is because
they are run by un-elected, unim
peachable bureaucrats who swing
Publisher The Islander EDITORIAL
the biggest of bats, are gifted with
ginormous budgets and whose bosses
change every few years.
If you’ve been on the job for a
while, accumulated some seniority
and knew your boss would only be
your boss for eight years at the most,
wouldn’t that open the door for a cer
tain amount of ‘do-the-least-amount-
of-work-I-can-to-get-by.’
The difficulty in firing government
workers at any level is well known.
Now, for the record, let’s look at
those budgets:
“The initial FY 2024 budget state
lawmakers approved for the DOT
included $3.9 billion for the state’s
transportation department, includ
ing more than $2.2 billion in state
money and more than $1.5 billion in
federal taxpayer funds. The revised
budget includes roughly $5.6 billion
for DOT.”
The budget for the Georgia De
partment of Natural Resources in FY
2024 was $343,763,021.
Bottom line is no one tells these
guys what to do.
Over my 34 years as a reporter I
have never, not one time, had a phone
call returned from the DOT’s District
Five Communications Director.
She sends out periodic Press Re
leases with information about DOT
projects, but they say if you have any
questions you can get hold of some
one at the home office in Atlanta.
Yeah, good luck with that Bob.
But back to the bridge... last we
heard the DOT is still figuring out
how to repair it.
Once they get that done, there will
likely be a long, drawn out process
of bidding it out and then months of
construction.
Just drive north towards Darien
where the DOT is widening Hwy.
17... on a good day you’ll see lots of
equipment and maybe four guys ac
tually working.
It took the Florida DOT years to
four-lane A1A between Yulee and
Amelia Island.
I truly understand the wheels of
government turn slow and I under
stand why. You don’t want Cousin
Lou out repairing that bridge with
substandard work.
But it seems that, considering the
importance of this stretch of Hwy. 17,
the DOT could shorten the process,
I’m sure they have excellent contrac
tors they can call, then get out there
and spend the money to have the com
pany work 24 / 7 to get the job done.
But what do I know?
GEORGIA SEA GRILL
COLLECTIVE fy fc) @
0 G EOi?q a s
Let The Georgia Sea Grill Collective handle your
Holiday gatherings so you can spend less time in
the kitchen and more time capturing memories.
THREE LITTLE BIRDS
509 OCEAN BLVD.
ST. SIMONS ISLAND
912.771.8787
ThreeLittleBirdsSSI.com
GEORGIA SEA GRILL
407 MALLERY ST.
ST. SIMONS ISLAND
912.638.1197
GeorgiaSeaGrill.com
Spread the joy with GSG gift cards!
B
mg Term Rentals
ion Rentals
We offer V<
St. S/monsil
We also of
St. Simons I
sland & Long Term
er homes for sale <
for sale on .
lands and Brunswick,
r the Holidays
nan - Broker,
506 Monck!
-kaufman
7711
Owner
runs 1
