I was driving over the Skyway yesterday and was surprised at the condition of the paint on support cables. It's faded, chipped off and just plain crappy looking. It's been like this for a few years now and can't figure out why nothing's being done. This is one of our true Landmarks and is supposed to be a gateway to our area. I was kinda of embarrassed to say the least, since a had a couple of vistors with me. I know this is a state operated facility, yet I feel some of the city leaders of St.Pete should step up and make something happen here (on th state level).

The main span and support cables are in Hillsborough County.

I know the bridge lies in both Manatee and Hillsborough Counties, but as Smiley mentioned, the main bridge is in Hillsborough. Hopefully they get around to touching it up.

Again, I'm not saying any particular county(or City) should be painting this bridge. I just feel some city or local leaders should use whatever political clout they have to lean on the state to get this done. I simply offered up St.Pete as downtown is one of the first thing we see when going over the bridge heading north. Hopefully, someone will get on the ball as this bridge should be a point of pride for the community.

According to wikipedia, the Skyway Bridge is maintained by the FDOT. (Must have been those budget cuts :) )
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunshine_Skyway_Bridge

Yeah, the money to repaint the Skyway cables is there from what I know BUT They actually have to develop a system to repaint before they actually do it. I remember reading that somewhere.

You can find media articles from the Times (maybe the Tribune) about the state of the Skyway paint job... It might be from 2004 or so.