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Sanibel Causeway Bridges Closed to ALL Truck Traffic Effective Immediately
Aug 3, 2006 Lee County Department of Transportation FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Sanibel Causeway Bridges Closed to ALL Truck Traffic Effective Immediately Trucks over 6,000 pounds traveling to Sanibel will be turned around before the toll plaza Fort Myers, FL, (August 3, 2006) – Effective immediately, the Sanibel Causeway will be closed to all trucks over 6,000 pounds (all trucks requiring permits). Trucks will be permitted to leave Sanibel Island. Recent pile driving efforts for the new Bridge C, the bridge closest to Sanibel, have induced stress to the existing bridge. This issue is the result of very difficult pile driving for one of the substructures for the new bridge and has not been caused by deterioration of the existing bridge. The hard driving has caused the existing bridge to move slightly in the horizontal direction causing some unusual stresses in the cap and piles of the existing bridge. The Lee County Department of Transportation and the construction team are working to remedy the problem. The construction team will install structural pile jackets around the two piles in question which will re-distribute the stresses. The work is expected to be complete the night of Monday, August 7th and current operations will resume the morning of Tuesday, August 8th when trucks will be allowed to use the Causeway again. However, this schedule assumes that Tropical Storm Chris will not impact the repair operations. It has been determined that it is safe for all other vehicles to continue to travel across the bridge. For more information about the Sanibel Causeway Improvements project, please visit the project web site at www.sanibelcauseway.com |