by SC Publisher Shannen Hayes
Traffic should flow better across the Sanibel Causeway with permanent lanes in both directions of travel now open. Restoration work continues on the shoulders and on islands.
On Friday, Dec. 22, crews accomplished the monumental task of completing the roadway to allow for much smoother travel to and from Sanibel. This massive achievement comes less than 15 months after Hurricane Ian destroyed major sections of the bridge.
Sanibel Mayor Richard Johnson thanked the crews Friday morning as they wrapped things up for holiday weekend and celebrated their accomplishment with an employee barbecue.
“I’m here this morning to say a huge, huge thank you.. I want you to know that as a community we recognize the help that we’re getting from the outside,” said Mayor Johnson. “I drove across the bridge…and what a beautiful ride. It is you and workers that came before you that are responsible for what we have today.”
Crews will continue working on the bridge to make it more resilient to future storms. That work will continue until early 2025.
New resiliency features include several layers of protective sheet pile walls anchored 50 feet down to protect the roadway. FDOT Community Liaison Jennifer Dorning said the Causeway did not have that protection before the storm. “When the water came up over the road and then sucked all the sand back out, that caused a lot of the issues.”
Construction crews work on protective concrete caps on the Sanibel Causeway. SC photos by Dorothy Wallace
Island walls will protect the causeway islands roadway and sea walls will protect the recently repaired bridge approaches, as retaining walls protect the sides of the bridge. King pile walls, driven 50 feet under the water’s surface, wrap around the bridge abutments. Each wall has a protective concrete cap which is formed then poured. Concrete delivery is currently underway.
A drainage structure between the bridge and retaining wall will protect the road from high water. Sea water will drain off the road and be filtered there before returning to the Gulf of Mexico.
Marine mattresses, made of small rocks held within a framework and weighing 9,000 pounds each, will absorb wave energy to protect the bridge and shoreline. As the marine mattresses fill with silt, they will support plant life and become habitat, providing further resiliency.
“We’re going to be proud of this because we know there are others across the state looking at what we’re doing and making design changes based on some of these things we’re doing for Sanibel,” said Dorning.
Crews are currently filling the marine mattresses and will continue to work on them for several weeks. While a substantial amount the roadway work was completed on Friday, water work for bridge protection will continue until early 2025.
“We made a commitment to have a substantial part of the roadway completed by the end of this year,” said Dorning. “So this week is really tough for everybody because (crews) are pulling long shifts and we have a lot of people out there. It’s incredible what they are doing and we appreciate your patience while we’re trying to get through this.”
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