By Samantha Joseph

Staff Writer

MARTIN COUNTY - The proposed bridge from Palm City to Stuart will close a major economic gap at a time of near-record unemployment, creating about 3,600 jobs, according to state Department of Transportation officials.

More than 40 years in the making, the proposed Indian Street Bridge got a strong show of support this year from state and local government officials who included it among projects for funding in the federal economic stimulus plan.

"This is just going to be a great economic boom for Martin County, Palm Beach and St. Lucie (counties)," said Carolyn Davi, executive director of the Palm City Chamber of Commerce. "It's going to affect a lot of people."

The bridge would span about 1.5 miles from Indian Street, just off Kanner Highway, to 36th Street in Palm City.

To build it, the Department of Transportation estimates the effort would create and support 3,586 jobs, including engineers, landscapers and work crews, plus benefit restaurants, equipment rental companies and other businesses.

"This will put people back to work, get people spending again and help local businesses that have been hurting," Ms. Davi said. "This is very welcomed news."

The project would also help alleviate traffic congestion on the Palm City Bridge, where 50,000 vehicles travel daily, said Mike DiTerlizzi, former chairman of the Metropolitan Planning Organization.

On completion, the Indian Street Bridge would accommodate up to 50,000 vehicles per day, helping meet commuter needs projections until the year 2032, he added. It would help ease congestion at two busy intersections, Monterey Road and Kanner Highway and Map Road and Martin Downs Boulevard.

"This has always been needed," said Ms. Davi. "It's a safety issue, too, in Martin County. The Palm City Bridge gets tried up. This would give us a second evacuation route."

The bridge's inclusion in the stimulus package brings to head decades of effort by several business and civic groups, including the Stuart/Martin County Chamber of Commerce and the Economic Council of Martin County.

"I'm just excited. It's at our doorstep and its time to move forward," said Mr. DiTerlizzi, a former Martin County Commission chairman who's been involved with the project since 1996, when it lost some after local administrators chose to focus on other endeavors.

"The county commission lowered it from No.1 priority to 13. Instead of taking it off the list, they just made it a very low priority so that no funding went to it," he said.

Funding and price were key deterrents over the years, as the cost of the project multiplied.

"It's just been one hurdle after another," Ms. Davi said.

From $40 million in 1996, the estimated price tag doubled in 2000. Planners now place the cost at around $200 million.

If the state's legislative budget committee approves the project, the stimulus plan would allocate $120 million to the bridge.

Supporters raised an additional $80 million in the last decade, and the money has gone to fund the Department of Transportation's land acquisition, planning, design, engineering fees and other costs associated with the project.

"This has been quite a long time coming," Mr. DiTerlizzi said. "I have a positive feeling."

Optimistic local supporters attended the budget committee's April 15 meeting in Tallahassee to hear the decision.

"We've been proactive in this," Ms. Davi said. "It's been in the plans for so many years. This was our last chance to get it done."

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