Published Wednesday, August 15, 2001

CARL HIAASEN

Make this boondoggle a bridge to nowhere

A few years ago, some bigshots decided that there ought to be a toll bridge from Port St. Lucie to Hutchinson Island and its popular beaches.

No bridge was needed there, but it would handsomely affect real-estate prospects. Politicians cheered.

Environmentally, the bridge couldn't have been more recklessly routed, crossing two unique and delicate habitats -- Herman's Bay on the Indian River Lagoon and the grassy marsh known as the Savannahs.

Aesthetically, the span would have been an eyesore. As a traffic shortcut, it was laughably expensive -- and Hutchinson Island already was accessible by other roads.

Homeowner groups came out strongly against the proposed ``Walton Road Bridge.'' Members stood up at meetings, gave press interviews and wrote letters to newspapers.

Then something stunning happened. Figg Bridge Engineers, Inc., which was designing the bridge, filed a libel suit against four of the loudest critics, all representatives of homeowner associations.

One defendant was a lifelong Floridian named Roger Sharp, a Vietnam vet. ``They scared the hell out of me, but I've been scared before,'' he said. ``This time it just made me mad.''

Another defendant was Charles Grande. ``None of us said anything that wasn't already in the newspapers, and Figg Engineering decided to sue us. People were dumbfounded,'' he recalled.

Figg said that Sharp, Grande and the others had defamed the company by saying it was a ``target'' of an investigation into another infamous Florida folly.

That was the Garcon Point Bridge, a boondoggle arranged by an oily hustler named Bo Johnson, then state Speaker of the House. He was later trucked off to prison on unrelated tax charges.

Financed with $95 million in bonds, the Garcon Point Bridge went up in record time across Pensacola Bay. The object was to trigger shoreline development and enrich land speculators.

The bridge builders, Odebrecht-Metric, shaved costs by routinely dumping tons of wet waste cement and broken pilings into the water -- a flagrant crime.

The firm that was supposed to oversee the job: Figg Bridge Engineers.

Whether or not Figg technically was a ``target,'' investigators definitely scrutinized its conduct at Garcon Point. Several workers said that Figg inspectors witnessed instances of illegal concrete dumping, and did nothing.

According to The St. Petersburg Times, one Figg inspector admitted he saw the dumping but was told by a supervisor not to worry about it.

Figg denied any wrongdoing and never was charged. Odebrecht-Metric pleaded guilty to federal pollution charges and agreed to cough up more than $4 million in fines.

Critics of the St. Lucie bridge believed that they were well within their rights to point out Figg's connection to the Garcon Point fiasco.

Their attorney, Robert Rivas, said the company's libel suit was a ``classic example'' of a ``SLAPP''-- a Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation, meant to silence or intimidate grass-roots opposition.

And it seemed to work, at least for a time.

Attendance at open meetings, once standing-room-only, dipped dramatically. Fewer people signed their names to angry letters-to-the-editor. Sharp said five officers of the Indian River Drive Freeholders Association resigned in fear of being sued.

But Figg also might have outsmarted itself, for the lawsuit has kept its involvement at Garcon Point in the news. A trial would be a public-relations nightmare.

Today the Garcon Point Bridge is broke, its anemic toll revenues unable to cover debt payments. Gov. Bush recently vetoed a $1.4 million state loan, basically saying that taxpayers shouldn't have to bail out bonehead schemes.

The governor's action was a chilly message to bridge boosters in St. Lucie. Their plan was to use $20 million in DOT funds, and raise another $30 million with a bond issue just like the one that flopped at Garcon Point.

State Sen. Ken Pruitt, the political godfather of the Walton Road Bridge, now says he's found better ways to spend $20 million.

On Thursday, the St. Lucie Expressway and Bridge Authority is expected to decide whether it will bail out.

If the bridge is killed -- as it should be -- much of the credit belongs to those being sued by Figg Engineers: Charles Grande, Roger Sharp, Edward McKay and Kevin Stinnette.

They never caved in, and they never shut up.