Collier County transportation leaders are discussing the possibility of a countywide tax, instead of a direct toll, to pay for an overhaul of the Judge S.S. Jolley Bridge that connects Marco Island to mainland Collier.

Renovation of the nearly 40-year-old two-lane bridge, built in 1969, requires additional lanes.

Marco Island Councilman Mike Minozzi said money for the project originally was supposed to come from the Metropolitan Planning Organization, a countywide transportation planning agency.

That’s changed.

Now, MPO leaders are looking for another source of revenue to expand the bridge.

Consultants preparing a toll feasibility study presented an interim draft report Friday.

In doing so, they didn’t offer a possible dollar figure for a toll or a surcharge, but did compute how much the county could raise with a 1 percent local infrastructure surtax: $492 million between 2008 and 2015.

In order to obtain that 1 percent, Collier government leaders would have to put the idea before voters in a referendum.

According to a report by Cambridge Systematics, CRSPE Inc., PBS&J, and Gravina Smith & Matte, widening of the Jolley bridge was estimated to cost about $45 million in 2005.

After Friday’s session, MPO Manager Phil Tindall said he didn’t have an updated figure.

Jolley is one of Marco’s two bridges. Goodland Bridge also connects Marco to the mainland.

While the Goodland Bridge has been cited as structurally deficient, the Jolley Bridge can withstand a bit more pounding. However, more drivers use the Jolley Bridge.

An interim feasibility study issued by Cambridge late last month said Goodland Bridge carries less than 10 percent of the traffic to and from Marco, because it adds time, distance and cost.

Florida Department of Transportation officials have estimated that maintenance costs for the Jolley Bridge would be $7,000 in 2007.

However, Tindall pointed out after the meeting that Infrastructure Corp. of America, a contractor hired by DOT, contends that from June 2005 to now, Jolley’s maintenance has actually cost $76,000 in repairs and $12,000 in inspections, for a total of $88,000, or $44,000 a year.

Whether a toll or tax is used for the project, Collier Commissioner Donna Fiala asked if the funding source would be eliminated once the bridge has been overhauled.

Jeff Buxbaum, a Cambridge Systematics spokesman, told Fiala, whose district includes Marco, that if county leaders chose a tax instead of a toll, that money then could be used for other county projects.

Minozzi, an MPO member, wanted to know what the cost would be for Marco residents, and asked for “some kind of number on that,” something neither Buxbaum nor Tindall could provide.

Buxbaum said the MPO could choose to discontinue the toll — or tax — but that increasingly, more states and regions choose to retain the tolls after meeting the initial project need.

Minozzi expressed concern that if a toll were imposed, more people would choose to take the Goodland Bridge for free.

“There are many problems that would make that impossible,” Minozzi said.

In addition to going some 10 miles out of one’s way, and the cost of the extra gas, Goodland Bridge needs major work, he said.

It couldn’t handle the extra traffic, he said.

Commissioner Fred Coyle asked Buxbaum about his traffic numbers.

“You have correctly stated that peak season was pretty much over when you (collected) peak-season counts,” Coyle said.

There’s a big difference between traffic counts in January and traffic counts in March, he noted.

Buxbaum agreed.

“We didn’t really have good information,” Buxbaum said.

Coyle also asked about a one-way toll, something Buxbaum said his company hadn’t explored.

Another Cambridge report on the Jolley Bridge is due this spring, said MPO Chairman Gary Price, a Naples city councilman.

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