FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:  Pete Winton, Lee County Administration
               (239) 335-2777

BOARD SELECTS "BULBTEE" AS CAUSEWAY SPAN "A" DESIGN
 

  Click image to enlarge   

FORT MYERS, Fla. (March 9, 2004) - The Board of Lee County Commissioners today approved the $21.5-million "Bulbtee" design as the preferred option for the fixed bridge that will replace the Sanibel Causeway's drawbridge (see attached).

The decision was unanimous, with Commissioner Doug St. Cerny absent with an excused absence due to illness.

The "Bulbtee" is the simplest and least expensive design of the four options the Board selected Feb. 10. In the past month the county's Department of Transportation "costed out" the variations in tolls for the final four designs.

  (See attached renderings of the four options).
                                    Click images to enlarge

The Single Center Arch (3 Archu1, $26m) and Post Tensioned Box (3 Boxgirder, $27m) each would have required 25-cents more in the toll just to pay for the added design. The Continuous Arch (3 Archu2, $41m) would have required $1 more in the toll to pay for the additional design.

That's on top of the increase in the $3 toll that is expected due to a lawsuit filed by the City of Sanibel in January that halted the bond financing of the project. Since then, debt coverage ratios, insurance requirements and interest rates have changed.

The final toll for the Causeway bridges replacement has not been determined because there are too many unknown factors about the financial markets when bonds are finally sold, how much the toll rate structure will influence driver habits and what discount programs will be continued.

Commissioners expressed concern that selecting anything other than the basic design would add costs to a toll that already is expected to increase significantly.

The county's DOT hopes to begin replacements later this year of the "B" fixed span first, then the "C" fixed span (closest to Sanibel) second. Under that timeline, the B span would be completed in Spring/Summer 2005 and the C span would be finished in Fall/Winter 2005.

How quickly the U.S. Coast Guard issues a permit for the replacement of the drawbridge will determine when it is completed. If the county can receive a permit before this summer, the A span could be completed in early 2006.