Ford Seeks End to Bridge Woes

Nassau County Legislator Denise Ford is demanding to know what’s up with the Michael Valenti Memorial Long Beach Bridge.

The bridge was stuck for hours in the open position on Saturday afternoon, causing some traffic delays and backups.

Ford, who represents and lives in Long Beach, said that since hurricane season is here and a major surfing competition is headed for the city in less than two months, a bridge showing signs of disrepair is not a good sign. In addition, beach-goers were traveling to and from the shorefront on a sunny, bustling Saturday afternoon when the span shut down.

“This is our busy time and the bridge is not operating properly,” a frustrated Ford said on Tuesday.

In recent years the bridge, which is maintained by Nassau County, has experienced problems and on several occasions was unable to be closed. Ford said that about five years ago the bridge was fixed and she thought the problems would disappear.

“I’m a little bewildered,” she said. “I want to get to the bottom of it.”

The legislator said she left a message with county spokesman Mike Martino on Tuesday to get an explanation about why the bridge malfunctioned, but has yet to hear from him. She is hoping to meet with County Executive Edward Mangano to address her concerns about the span.

In a phone interview with Patch, Martino said the bridge malfunctioned because the bridge locks broke.

“We responded quickly to it and it was taken care of,” said Martino, who added that the bridge was fixed in a couple of hours and traffic returned to normal.

During the mishap, southbound traffic was rerouted to the northbound lane so that traffic kept moving.

Last September, the bridge experienced two malfunctions within days of each other. First, the bridge was stuck in the open position when the structure sustained a control board malfunction as a new motor for the locking system was being installed, officials said. Then, a few days later, fire fighters were called to the bridge to check on smoke from an apparent electrical problem.

Martino said the problem the bridge encountered early Saturday afternoon was unexpected, could not have been prevented and had nothing to do with past problems with the span.

“It was an anomaly and it was fixed quickly,” Martino said.

Ford responded, “Even so, when you have a busy day with a lot of beach-goers and you have three lanes of traffic going into one lane, I beg to differ with Mr. Martino, it was backed up.

“It’s a very, very busy time for us and we can’t afford this type of breakdown,” she said.

Ford said she was particularly worried that the bridge could malfunction now and take away an important evacuation route during hurricane season.

In addition, the Quiksilver Pro New York surfing competition, bringing the best surfers in the world to Long Beach to vie for $1 million in prize money, is slated to be held from Sept. 4 to 15. Many thousands are expected to descend on the community during those two weeks.

“If it’s a recurring problem, maybe cars can go around it, but what if the bridge can’t open and the boats can’t go through?” Ford said. “We need to correct this.”