DeSantis Looking into Temporary Bridge for Sanibel, Flying Power Workers to Islands to Help Recovery Efforts

CAPE CORAL (FLV) – Gov. Ron DeSantis announced in Cape Coral that the state will look into building a temporary bridge for the causeway into Sanibel to speed up recovery efforts.

There is an emergency request for bids as the Florida Department of Transportation puts together a plan to temporarily fix the bridge.

“I can’t tell you now without seeing who it’s going to be, exactly how long that’s going to take. But I can tell you is no one was really doing anything about it and we are doing something about it,” DeSantis said.

The governor said the temporary fix would help put residents, emergency crews, food distribution, and linemen on the island.

“You got to do all this stuff in parallel. You don’t only do that and then say we’ll get to the bridges in two months. You don’t only do food and then not do electricity or something,” he explained. “So all these things need to move in parallel.”

The National Guard will fly electrical personnel to Sanibel and Pine Island to survey the substations and begin repairs.

“What I don’t want to do is wait weeks for Sanibel’s bridge to be ready and then send people,” he said. “So we’re sending them now.”

The governor had previously announced a temporary bridge will be built for people to reach Pine Island. He expects the bridge will be built by the end of the week.

“They’re offering evacuations for those residents, but most of them want to be on the island. They just want to be able to go back and forth,” he said. “So we’re going to be able to do that.”