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Project Update: Permanent Roadway Work On Sanibel Causeway Substantially Complete
By Joe VanHoose, Managing Editor
As Toby Mazzoni drives around Sanibel Island now, he can see the strides the community is making in its long recovery from Hurricane Ian. Restaurants and businesses are reopening, homes are being rebuilt and condos repaired.
“You can see the return to life and the people working really hard,” said Mazzoni, project manager for Superior Construction. “It’s a long process to get back to some sort of normalcy, but they’re working through it.”
Restoring the Sanibel Causeway is a big piece of the normalcy puzzle. After months of repairs, reinforcement and roadwork by the Superior Construction and the de Moya Group joint-venture team, all travel lanes across the Sanibel Causeway are now permanently open, and work on the roadway is substantially complete.
As the team finished their work on Dec. 22, residents were ready to thank them as they drove by.
“The traveling public were waving and honking horns and telling us all ‘thank you’ as they passed by,” Mazzoni said. “It’s definitely a good feeling when you accomplish a task like that.”
From Rapid Response to Permanent Repairs
On September 28, 2022, Hurricane Ian hit Florida’s southwestern coast, claiming more than 150 lives and causing $112 billion in damage. It also washed away portions of Sanibel Causeway, a three-mile series of bridges, leaving some locals stranded on Sanibel and Captiva Islands.
The Superior-de Moya JV was chosen as the primary contractor, partnering with Kisinger Campo & Associates (KCA) as the lead designer. The team was onsite within 24 hours of the hurricane’s passing, inspecting damage and proposing temporary repairs, all while recommending permanent repairs which would protect the causeway from future storms.
H&H collaborated with KCA and the contractor joint venture team, Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) District 1 and Central Office to identify and understand the causes of the damage, design temporary repairs that could be rapidly constructed to restore service to emergency services and the general public as quickly and safely as practical, that could be implemented in a manner that permitted the construction of economical and durable permanent repairs.
In October 2022, the Sanibel project team completed the temporary repairs, granting locals access to the mainland in just 15 days — one week ahead of schedule. After achieving that milestone, their focus turned to reinforcing the emergency work and improving the Sanibel Causeway’s resilience to future storms.
“When we started looking at data produced from Ian, the numbers were far greater,” Mazzoni said. “So, we basically designed it to Ian and more. If you have current data that is like Ian that is more powerful than the data you would have designed to, you don’t want to go halfway.”
FDOT’s First Phased Design-Build
The Sanibel Causeway emergency repairs contract was FDOT’s first-ever phased design-build project. This procurement method allowed the project to be delivered in phases, which expedited construction and allowed the project team to procure long lead materials, like sheet piles.
Although the temporary emergency permit expired before the permanent permit was issued, Superior quickly obtained the permit necessary to resume construction on Sept. 8. “Despite this setback, we still wanted to meet the original deadline for roadway work to be substantially completed, which was Christmas 2023,” Mazzoni said. “The JV team significantly ramped up resources and reached out to major subcontractors and material suppliers for support.”
At peak construction, the joint venture team had three pile-driving crews (marine/land), four roadway earthwork crews, two storm drainage crews, six rebar-tying crews, eight concrete placement crews, three asphalt paving crews, and various other support resources. They maintained two lanes of traffic at all times and utilized three major traffic control phases to remove and reconstruct 1.3 miles of the causeway while providing significant resiliency upgrades.
Recent Project Milestones Included:
Demolish 35,000 square yards of existing roadway asphalt and base, 2,270 linear feet of concrete barrier wall, and 4,500 linear feet of concrete coping
Demolish five bridge approach slab areas
Set 40,000 linear feet of temporary concrete barrier wall for traffic control
Place and grade 19,000 tons of shell base
Install 163,000 square feet of retaining wall sheet piling, 64,000 square feet of king pile wall, and 183,000 square feet of island wall sheet piling
Install 4,450 linear feet of retaining wall concrete cap (including 87,000 pounds of steel reinforcement) and 8,400 linear feet of island wall concrete cap (including 162,000 linear feet of fiber reinforcement)
Install 5,500 linear feet of shoulder and median concrete barriers
Install five new concrete bridge approach slabs (including 61,000 pounds of steel reinforcement)
Install 3,000 linear feet of underdrain system for retaining walls (including 7,000 tons of No. 57 stone)
Install 1,500 linear feet of storm drainage system
Place 19,500 tons of asphalt pavement
“This scope of work would normally take 18 or more months to complete. The Sanibel JV team completed it in 105 calendar days [from Sept. 8 to Dec. 22],” said Mazzoni.
Work on the islands and the water surrounding the causeway bridges will continue for another year. The final phase consists of the design and construction of new permanent steel sheet pile walls and steel combination walls with limestone riprap scour countermeasures designed for future corrosion in the extremely aggressive marine environment and for protection against future major coastal storm events.
Protection of the earthen causeway and roadway between the bridges from future scour and undermining consists of a combination of buried steel sheet pile walls and marine mattresses.
“We are very grateful for the contractor’s outstanding work on this project,” said Chris Mollitor, FDOT construction manager. “This team of contractors has worked day and night since the storm to bring the project to this milestone.”
