Governor Ron DeSantis announced on Wednesday that the Sanibel Causeway that was damaged in Hurricane Ian is now reopen with temporary repairs.
The 3-mile structure was damaged in the wake of Hurricane Ian, while officials thought it would take months to repair. However, just three weeks after the hurricane, it has reopened ahead of schedule. It was originally expected to be open by October 21.
"There was talk about how do we get more people back on to Sanibel," DeSantis said at a press briefing, calling the damage to the causeway "significant." "We had an ambitious agenda and ambitious roadmap to get this done by the end of October."
Sanibel Island is home to approximately 6,300 people. The hurricane killed more than 100 people in Florida, many of them in Lee County, where Sanibel Island resides.
The governor’s office said 100 crews worked around the clock to repair the causeway, which includes three separate bridges. Workers used 8,200 loads of fill dirt, 2,400 loads of rock, and 4,000 tons of asphalt.
The Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) will continue to work on a permanent fix for the causeway, officials said. Power restoration, debris removal, and other recovery efforts will be much easier with the temporary causeway repairs, officials said.
“There is hope,” said Cecil Pendergrass, chairman of the Lee County Commission. “We will rebuild.”
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Source: ABC News
