A slice of Sanibel Causeway washed away in Hurricane Ian. Then came the truck convoy

Howard Cohen

With rousing music as a soundtrack to what could be an Army recruiting commercial, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ 13-second clip of the reopened Sanibel Causeway shows a convoy of trucks rumbling toward the Hurricane Ian-battered island.

The first image showed a Florida Highway Patrol truck that looked as solid as a tank crossing the bridge.

A Florida Highway Patrol truck crosses the Sanibel Causeway on Oct. 11, 2022, after the bridge was repaired enough to allow service workers, like FPL, access to Sanibel to begin the restoration process. The bridge will open for public access on Oct. 21, Gov. Ron DeSantis said.
A Florida Highway Patrol truck crosses the Sanibel Causeway on Oct. 11, 2022, after the bridge was repaired enough to allow service workers, like FPL, access to Sanibel to begin the restoration process. The bridge will open for public access on Oct. 21, Gov. Ron DeSantis said.

On Tuesday, DeSantis announced at a news briefing in nearby Fort Myers that the Sanibel Causeway had undergone temporary repairs to allow work crews access to Sanibel by land. A convoy of trucks drove over the bridge, the first group to make it across the roadway since Hurricane Ian’s winds and surge on Sept. 28 rendered five sections impassable, CBS Miami reported.

Previously, restoration crews had to access Sanibel only by water via barges.

The first group to drive to Sanibel Island this week included crews from Florida Power and Light, Lee County Electric Cooperative and members of the Florida Electric Cooperative Association, WTSP Tampa Bay 10 reported. Among the vehicles: 200 bucket trucks, 150 line and pickup trucks towing 50 trailers, two tractor trailers and first responders.

DeSantis said that while work had already begun to restore power to Sanibel, some of that work now would have to entail rebuilding by FPL and the others. That’s because power poles snapped in the storm, he said.

Now that these crews are on the island, the Florida Department of Transportation can continue with causeway repairs so that residents can use the bridge to access the island.

“This will be open to civilian use October 21st, so that’s going to be an amazing thing to have,” DeSantis said at the news conference as he turned to face the bridge behind him.

Last week, work on the bridge that connects Matlacha to Pine Island was completed enough by crews from the Florida Department of Transportation to allow repair crews onto Pine Island by land after that bridge was knocked out of commission by Hurricane Ian.

Watch video of first responders, Publix truck crossing repaired Pine Island bridge after Ian

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