PALM HARBOR, Fla. — In Palm Harbor’s Baywood Village, the sound of construction equipment Wednesday morning was like music to the neighborhood’s ears — and the active seen was a sight for the sorest of eyes.
“We’ve hard sore eyes for three years now,” HOA President Jeff Jaeger said.
Jaeger is among a number of people living in the neighborhood who reached out to 10 Tampa Bay last month, voicing their frustration over the lack of progress on the job to replace the Crosswinds Bridge, and the junk left in the middle of town for years because of it.
“Thank goodness with the attention you brought to the situation, our neighborhood might get back to normal,” Jaeger said in an interview with 10 Tampa Bay’s Aaron Parseghian.
After hearing concerns from neighbors and 10 Tampa Bay’s coverage, Pinellas County Commissioners voted to terminate their contracts with American Empire Builders citing delays and “unacceptable” work.
This week, a new contractor was hired to begin cleaning up the surrounding area and, in a couple of weeks, begin finishing what’s left of the job. The county says the full project to replace two small bridges is nearly complete.
“As you can see behind me almost all the debris is gone, we have a new crew out today, they are cleaning everything up,” said Adam Reister who lives nearby and is impressed with the progress thus far.
“They’ve reassured us they are going to restore it to the same or better condition it was before so we look forward to seeing it come to fruition,” Reister added.
He says this day was made possible because of their community coming together and 10 Tampa Bay shining a light on the issues.
“There is only one news station for Baywood Village and it’s 10 Tampa Bay. We greatly appreciate it," he said.
Southwest of Palm Harbor in Harbor Bluffs, residents there have also been dealing with headaches related to delayed bridge work on Oakwood Drive. The project was supposed to be complete at the end of last year, but the county says it's only 30% done.
“It’s a nightmare, especially for us, we can’t get out of our driveway. Everybody runs the lights, it’s just awful,” said Diane Ryan who lives nearby.
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After terminating and suspending AEB, the county says they are conducting an engineering reassessment over the next couple of weeks to then determine the path forward, but the project may go up for bid once again.
County leaders did not comment much more than that, hinting they are considering legal action to recoup some of the money spent on the multi-million-dollar projects.
These two bridges are not the only ones AEB is under fire for. The Miami-based construction company has also been cited for delayed work on two different bridges in St. Petersburg, where both FDOT and the City of St. Pete say they are working with a surety company to determine the path forward. AEB has not yet returned 10 Tampa Bay’s request for comment.