What started out as a road issue has turned into a garbage problem on Duck Key. When regular trash pickup service was curtailed in mid-October due to weight limits on aging bridges, Marathon Garbage Service put two 20-yard Dumpsters on “Center Island” as a temporary collection site so residents could deliver their own household and yard waste to the receptacles. Marathon Garbage Service also leased a small truck that can offer some residential service accessible via Bimini Bridge.
Now, the weight limits on the bridge have changed again and, due to repeated abuse, the temporary collection site will only be open three days a week.
“The Dumpster situation is a challenge. They get filled almost immediately,” said Ron Oestreicher, a Duck Key resident. Oestreicher said he’s observed construction debris such as paint cans and large household items such as a mattress in the Dumpsters.
Marathon Garbage Service’s Greg Konrath said that’s not all. “Windows, pallets, entire trees and an outdoor deck, pieces of 2×6. People are using it as a free dumping site. Even when the Dumpsters are picked up, taken straight to the dump and returned, people have already thrown trash on the ground in their place.”
Marathon Garbage Service and Monroe County’s Solid Waste department are monitoring the situation closely and Konrath said most abuses are happening on Sunday. Both are working on a plan to fence off the site where the dumpsters are located and create a new schedule where the gates to the temporary collection site would be open only three days a week — Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.
Late last week, the limits on the bridges changed yet again. In early October, vehicles passing over Bimini Bridge were limited to three tons, or about the same weight as two Honda Accords. Then, a week later, the weight limit was increased to nine tons. Late last week it changed again, to allow up to 10 tons to cross the bridge. Coincidentally, that’s the size of the smaller garbage truck.
The other two bridges — Seaview and Harbor Drive bridges — started out with a 10-ton limit and now stand at four tons each. Monroe County said the bridges’ strength is lower than the initial rapid analysis suggested. Signs have been replaced to notify residents and visitors of the change and the county is looking at options to strengthen both in the interim until they can be replaced.
“The county has three people full-time for 12 hours a day at the bridges,” said Oestreicher, referring to the yellow-vested employees verifying weight limits before a vehicle can cross the bridges. “It’s a huge expense for them.”
Monroe County Mayor Michelle Coldiron said the county will probably be able to begin construction by January on Bimini Bridge.
“On Nov. 17 we approved several task orders to move the project forward, including approving a plan for alternating two-way traffic over one side of the bridge as the other is being repaired and then switching,” Coldiron said.
The replacement to the three Duck Key bridges has been in the plan for years and further delayed by the arrival of Hurricane Irma in 2017, when other more pressing needs were prioritized. If things had gone to plan, the work replacing Bimini Bridge would have begun in March 2021. Bids are due back by Dec. 10, advancing the reconstruction by a few months. The bridge is expected to cost $2.5 million, paid for with county funds, and take 18 months to construct.
Meanwhile, residents with second homes on Duck Key are returning to the island to spend the winter, as usual, Oestreicher said. He credits the county with setting up a specific web page to disseminate information at monroecounty-fl.gov/duckkey.
Active unexpired building permits affected by the weight limits on Bimini, Seaview and Harbour Drive bridges will not be required to get inspections until 180 days after a solution for delivery of materials is available. If someone with an open permit is able to proceed by other means before that time, they may do so. At last count, there were 80 open construction permits on Duck Key, not all of them affected by the bridge limits, and some granted extensions due to the pandemic.
Emergency services are not affected by the bridge weight limits.
