"There's still a chance of a late nest or two but the turtle mamas may be done."
That line came from Anna Maria Island Turtle Watch's weekly report on August 21, and it reads like an ending. Nesting season is closing out. But a few hundred yards away, at the Cortez end of the same stretch of water, something else was just getting started. Heavy equipment has been staging near the Cortez Bridge for weeks, and by early September the Florida Department of Transportation expects to break ground on the biggest infrastructure project this stretch of the Gulf Coast has seen in seventy years.
Those two stories are not competing for attention this month. They are tangled together, and understanding how explains a lot about what actually changes for the people who live here, versus what just makes headlines for the people who visit.
The Groundbreaking Everyone Saw Coming
The current Cortez Bridge has been carrying cars, bikes, and pedestrians between Cortez and Bradenton Beach since 1956. It has a two-lane deck and 17 feet of clearance, which means it has to open every time a sailboat or shrimper with any real mast height needs to pass through. Those openings back up traffic in both directions, sometimes for miles, and they're the whole reason this replacement has been on the drawing board for years.
FDOT's letting date, the point where construction bids were accepted, was March 25, 2026. Early site work has been underway since summer: pile driving from barges, traffic control setup, utility relocation. Full construction on the new 65-foot fixed-span bridge is expected to begin in early September and run for roughly 1,200 days, a little over three years.
The cost figures vary depending on which outlet you read. Some coverage cites $123 million for the project. Reporting that breaks out the full scope, including design work, puts the total closer to $143 million, split between $7.9 million in design and $135.3 million in construction. Both numbers describe the same bridge. The difference is just what's being counted.
Here's what the new structure actually gets the island, set against what's there now:
| Current Bridge (1956) | New Bridge (Under Construction) | |
|---|---|---|
| Clearance | 17 feet | 65 feet |
| Length | 2,616 feet | 2,930 feet |
| Spans | 53 | 19 |
| Movable parts | Yes, opens for boat traffic | None, fixed span |
| Shoulders and sidewalks | Minimal | Two 10-foot shoulders, two 10-foot sidewalks |
The fixed 65-foot clearance is the headline change. It means the new bridge won't open for boat traffic at all, which eliminates the specific kind of backup that's frustrated commuters and delivery drivers for decades.
What Actually Moves On Your Commute This Month
The construction itself won't close the bridge. Traffic will keep flowing throughout the first phase, just shifted slightly south at both the Cortez and Bradenton Beach approaches so crews have room to build the new roadway alignment north of the existing structure. A short connector road, Hunter's Point Way, is also going in on the mainland side, linking 127th Street West to Cortez Road.
Once the northern half of the new bridge is complete, expected around the end of 2026, traffic will move onto it while crews demolish the old drawbridge and finish the second half. FDOT anticipates that second major shift around mid-2028.
If this sounds like a lot to absorb for anyone who drives Cortez Road regularly, it helps to remember something county planners have been explicit about: Manatee County and FDOT are coordinating schedules so that only one of the island's three access routes is under major construction at any given time. Those three routes are:
- Cortez Bridge (SR 684), the one under construction now
- Manatee Avenue (SR 64), connecting Bradenton directly to Holmes Beach
- The bridge at Longboat Pass (SR 789), connecting from Longboat Key to the island's southern tip
That coordination is the quiet reason this project doesn't strand anyone. It's inconvenient, not isolating.
The Ferry That Got Bigger On Purpose
The other piece of this puzzle is on the water, not the road. In April 2026, the Gulf Islands Ferry added a third vessel to its fleet, the Manatee Belle, a 91-seat enclosed catamaran built specifically to handle rougher water and keep the schedule reliable when the wind picks up. It joined two smaller open-air boats, the Downtown Duchess and Miss Anna Maria, running between the Bradenton Riverwalk Pier and the Historic Bridge Street Pier.
The timing was not incidental. Bradenton Area Convention and Visitors Bureau executive director Elliott Falcione has said directly that the expanded ferry service is meant to ease congestion during Cortez Bridge construction, giving residents a water-based alternative for the exact period when the road gets more complicated. The numbers back up why the county is investing here: ridership grew from just under 27,000 passengers in 2024 to more than 55,000 in 2025, a jump officials say kept roughly 23,000 vehicle trips off local roads that year. One-way fares run $6, with discounted rates for seniors and children.
Why The Same Rules Apply Underwater
FDOT's permits for the new bridge require compliance with federal and state protections for the same species that make this stretch of coastline what it is, including Gulf sturgeon, manatees, sea turtles, and smalltooth sawfish. Seagrass impacts from the project have already been mitigated as part of that permitting process. It's not a coincidence that the construction schedule and the natural rhythms of this estuary are being managed on parallel tracks. They're governed by the same environmental review.
That's part of why the timing lines up the way it does this month. As of August 21, Anna Maria Island Turtle Watch still had 179 nests on the beach waiting to hatch, even with the season's egg-laying activity effectively finished. The organization's volunteers will keep doing nest excavations through September, checking each site a few days after it hatches to log the results. The bridge crews working the water this month are operating under rules written with exactly that kind of activity in mind.
One Saturday In September That Has Nothing To Do With Any Of This
Not everything on the calendar this month is tied to bridges or hatchlings. The Center of Anna Maria Island's Greg LaPensee Bowling Tournament returns Saturday, September 12, at Bowlero, presented by LaPensee Plumbing. It's the kind of event that keeps happening year after year regardless of what's under construction across the water, and it's worth mentioning precisely because it's ordinary. Island life doesn't pause for infrastructure projects. It reorganizes around them.
What This Month Actually Looks Like
Put together, September on Anna Maria Island is less a single story than two clocks ticking on the same stretch of coastline. One measures construction phases in years. The other measures a nesting season in its final weeks. Both are being managed with an eye on the same water, the same permits, and the same understanding that this island only works if none of its three access points fail at once.
If you're driving Cortez Road this month, expect the shift south at both approaches and budget a little extra time near the construction zone. If you'd rather skip the drive altogether, the Gulf Islands Ferry now has the capacity to make that a real option. And if you're out at night near the beach, the same care that's protected sea turtles here for decades is worth extending through the last stretch of hatching season.
None of this requires a decision from you beyond paying attention. That's the whole point of a month like this one.
If you're thinking about what a home on this island actually looks like day to day, infrastructure changes included, Jessica Batten can walk you through it. Start Your Island Search whenever you're ready.
