Florida takes ownership of Garcon Point Bridge; cash toll is $2.75 effective Thursday

After almost a year of negotiations, the state of Florida is taking ownership of the Garcon Point Bridge and slashing the toll nearly in half.

Beginning at 12:01 a.m. Thursday, toll rates on the Garcon Point Bridge were reduced from $4.50 to $2.30 for SunPass customers and from $5 to $2.75 for cash customers.

A news release from the Florida Department of Transportation announcing the change said, "For the first time, tolls collected on the Garcon Point Bridge will remain in Florida and will be reinvested for routine maintenance, critical updates, and improvements."

In July 2021, Gov. Ron DeSantis announced he was moving to permanently lower the tolls and have the state take ownership of the bridge.

Previously: Almost a year after Ron DeSantis touted plan to cut Garcon Bridge toll, it's still $5. Why?

More background: Lowering Garcon Point tolls delayed as negotiations for state to buy bridge are underway

"Since July of last year, the department has been in back-and-forth negotiations with the bondholders to reach an agreement to buy out the remaining debt and acquire the bridge," the FDOT release says. "The settlement initiates the transfer of ownership of the bridge facility to the department, improving operational efficiency and giving the department the ability to lower tolls for the Garcon Point Bridge."

Prior to the transfer of ownership, all tolls collected on the bridge went to pay outstanding debt, while the department was obligated to fund an average of $1.5 million annually, and over $30 million since 1999, to keep the bridge open.

“I give the governor credit for working through this issue and putting us back to where we thought we would be last year,” State Sen. Doug Broxson said Wednesday. “The bridge is now a state asset. And I think we can all celebrate that.”

The high cost of the toll has long been a point of frustration for Santa Rosa County motorists, and the structure has been mired in controversy for more than two decades.

Authorization to build a second, privately owned bridge across Pensacola Bay on the Santa Rosa County side was pushed through by former Florida House Speaker Bolley "Bo" Jonhson, D-Milton, in the early 1990s. Across the state it became known as "Bo's Bridge" and it never made the money Johnson and its promoters projected based on faulty traffic projections.

Johnson went to prison in 1999, the same year the bridge opened, for filing false tax returns. In 2011, the bridge authority defaulted on its bonds, sending it into receivership with bondholders becoming the bridge's owners.

In 2018, the bondholders filed a lawsuit aimed at requiring FDOT to raise bridge tolls in order to pay off bonds, which were in default in excess of $100 million.

A Tallahassee judge ruled in late 2019 that FDOT is obligated to raise tolls on Garcon Point Bridge, increasing the fee from $3.75 per axle to $5 per axle.

During Hurricane Sally in September 2020, several Skanska USA barges struck the Pensacola Bay Bridge, shutting it down for more than eight months. The Garcon Point Bridge became a main alternative during that reconstruction.

DeSantis ordered a toll suspension for the Garcon Point Bridge while the Pensacola Bay Bridge was being repaired. When the Pensacola Bay Bridge finally reopened in May 2021, tolls resumed on the Garcon Point Bridge.

A few months later, DeSantis made an appearance in Northwest Florida to announce the state's efforts to acquire the bridge.

In a statement touting the landmark, FDOT wrote the governor was committed to "providing much-needed relief to the more than 6,000 motorists that use the bridge every day."

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Garcon Point Bridge purchased by state; tolls now $2.75