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Ever Use The Garcon Point Bridge? Court Orders Toll Increased As Of Today.
March 1, 2020
To comply with a recent court order, new toll rates and an adjustment to the bridge volume discount program, took effect March 1 on the Garcon Point Bridge in Santa Rosa County.
The cash toll rate for two-axle vehicles will be adjusted to $5, and the cash rate for each additional axle (over two axles) will be an additional $5 per axle. The SunPass toll rate will be $4.50 for two-axle vehicles, and the SunPass rate for each additional axle (over two axles) will be an additional $4.50 per axle.
Two-axle vehicles using a SunPass transponder will now receive a 25% discount on their Garcon Point Bridge toll transactions in any month they have 30 or more Garcon Point Bridge toll transactions. The adjusted monthly 25% volume discount rate will apply beginning in March 2020.
The Garcon Point Bridge was constructed by the Santa Rosa Bay Bridge Authority and opened to traffic in 1999.
Comments
30 Responses to “Ever Use The Garcon Point Bridge? Court Orders Toll Increased As Of Today.”
Is there anyway that we could buy an annual pass if we live in a specific county? Especially for those of us that are retired and just want to go back-and-forth to the beach.
Make the bridge toll free to okaloosa and Walton County residents. Charge anyone from within the state of Florida $2 anyone out of state $10. It’s the tourist that make Destin and it’s the local workers that make Destin stay Destin why make the workers pay for it when it should be the tourist paying for it.
I would love to invest in a business where the government guarantees I will not lose my investment.
I’ve never invested in a business where I was guaranteed not to go bust. If I had known the government was going to make sure i wasn’t going to make money out of this venture, i would have invested.
Ghost Bridge!!
per the US Constitution it is a RIGHT to travel freely about the country…read Blackstone, and the Constitution of course. We the people need to take this to the appellate court, district court and fight it. The states can levy taxes and have other powers regarding infrastructure, but this is robbery….the county needs to take that bridge….and sue.
Greetings! I’m from the future! It’s 2030 here and the price is $57.99 now.
Pictured above: The bridge on the busiest time of day.
Never used it, never will.
Raising the price is an effective deterrent to use. Lower the price and more people will use it. More times than I can count, I was the only driver on the bridge. I will only use it now in case of an emergency. Maybe they should convert it to a fishing pier.
I’ve used the bridge to take my wife to the Gulf Breeze Medical behind the hospital. It was easy and fast. I’ll continue to use it but we only go over there once or twice a year. Seems like the bridge was a bad idea.
Logic says decrease the cost and more will use the bridge!
I’ll be using the four lane highway 87 out of Navarre. Closer to Fort Walton, much easier and quicker. At least the bridge will help with coastal evacuation. And they can’t charge anyone then.
Lived here over fifty years……used the bridge once
With my business, I tow a double axle trailer on a daily basis. With the tolls as they were, it used to cost me $22.50 for a round trip. I only used the bridge under extenuating circumstances. Now with the rate hike, I’m looking at $30 for a round trip. I’ll be using that bridge less than ever now. It won’t save me enough time versus cost of tolls. It’s in my best interest to now use alternate routes. I was emailed a survey sometime last year, asking for my input on anticipated use vs. toll rate. I gave my opinion, and if it was a simple flat rate and not an additional per axle charge, I would use the bridge more often. I’d be interested in seeing the overall results of that survey, as well as vehicle count per day if they dropped the toll for a trial period.
Hasn’t this bridge been mostly emply for the last 20 years? Do people actually use it? I would like to know the number of vehicles that use that bridge on a daily basis. As this info ever been made public? You can bet it will be a lot less with this ridiculous increase. If they really wanted to increase use of the bridge, they would LOWER the toll to encourage more to use it. What did this bridge cost to build?
Never have and never will use that private investor bridge as money under the table in politics got it built
Boycott it and make them eat it..just like they tried to do to us
Tolls are paid to service the private bonds that were sold to build it. THE STATE OF FLORIDA DID NOT PAY TO BUILD IT. Unfortunately, the study for the mid bay bridge (Destin) was used to justify traffic levels and expected income to issue the bonds. There is probably no toll amount that will provide the level of income required to properly service the bonds.
As far as the lawsuit the bond holders filed, I disagree with the courts judgement. The bridge falls under the Garçon Point Bridge Commission, which requires 3 or 4 members for a quorum to vote on anything. No one will serve on the commission except the State assigned person and they have no choice. Without a quorum, they can’t vote on a price increase, which is why I assume the Governor’s (Scott and Desantis) told them NO. So we have a Judge circumventing the correct process, which is wrong.
Sad to see the regular users that live near the bridge that use it for work to get screwed. They have gone from getting a 50% discount on $3.75 after 23 tolls per month ($1.87) to a 25% discount on $4.50 ($3.37) after 30 tolls each month. They should of delineated an area within so many miles of the bridge and charged them $2.00 per trip regardless of number of trips. Say Live Oak to Navarre and north on Garçon Point to I-10.
If we raise the toll to $100 we can really make a lot of money!!!!!!
way to high..when I go to the beach even though it takes longer to get there I go around this toll bridge just because of the high toll..
I remember when we kept having the debate over building the bridge in the first place – the environmental studies, etc.
Everyone kept trying to tell the state, “No! We don’t want or need this bridge!”
They built it anyways, saying “Infrastructure, because growth!”
How is there no one who can oversee hundreds of millions of dollars worth of budget to build this bridge, yet not know about the Laffer curve of supply and demand?
drop the toll to $2 bucks and keep the 25% discount for high-volume travelers, and you’ll see a difference.
I’ve always just pretended that bridge is a heat mirage. Try it sometime. It works.
Not me.i will go around.3 mile bridge cost more to build and its FREE and.there is a nice 4 lane hwy.87 now .Santa Rosa you will have to find another way to make $$.Sorry investors BAS BAD DECISION.
As a local truck driver, I will purposely go around this bridge from now on! Just like the Pensacola Beach bridge, I will enjoy a trip to Navarre and back.
Absolutely ridiculous. Let it go to bankruptcy. If it wasn’t generating a profit at 3.75, What makes these idiot’s think 5 bucks will help them. This kind of crap happens because of the idiot’s in Tallahassee at the state level as well as local. Shut it down and stop wasting taxpayer money on a toll booth and staff to operate it.
I have questions:
How did the rates end up being decided by a court?
Is a toll pretty much same a a tax? Yes.
When will authorities learn you can’t tax anything into prosperity?
You’d think they’d lower the amount to cross to increase traffic. It’s a great short cut to the beach if you live in Milton, and back home after a long day on the beach. I don’t see myself using it round trip anymore.
Good luck with increasing the traffic! I don’t use it very often, but 10 bucks round trip is steep in my mind!
Headline should read: “Private Venture Company Builds Bridge and Holds Travelers Hostage for Ransom.
This is why these type of public transportation projects should only be done by the government. Private roads and bridges, in most places, are considered free market failures because they will never turn a profit, just like the Garcon Point Bridge. The private company is teetering on bankruptcy. Well that is until now because the traveling public is allowed to fleeced by a government that is doing a behind the back handshake as it puts its hand in drivers’ pockets to take it.
I say avoid the bridge at all cost. No pun intended, and allow the company to fail.
That’s like charging 10 dollars for a lollipop, it just isn’t worth it. Do the folks in charge wonder why the bridge always looks empty?
Every time you have raised the rate I have used it less. Know I’m done with it .it’s not worth the price. Gas is a lot cheaper