Council chooses repairs for the Sands Bridge
Cape Coral City Council agreed Wednesday that repairing the Sands Bridge is the best option to pursue.
Assistant Public Works Director James Breakfield took Council through a presentation, which shared bleak updates of funding sources available. He shared that the Florida Department of Transportation is at the end of its fiscal year 2025 budget and cannot provide assistance, as well as being reluctant to forfeit Florida Highway Administration-allocated funds on an optional alternative. With that said, FDOT may have small allowance with its upcoming FY26 budget, which begins in July with funds being available in early to mid-August.
Breakfield said that FHWA requires a formal amendment to the existing Detailed Damage Inspection Report to secure extra funding for costs from Hurricane Milton and Helene.
Funding from Lee County Metropolitan Planning Organization also does not have any funds currently earmarked. There may be future reimbursements, but not guaranteed.
Breakfield said the options were repair, permanent removal or a full bridge replacement.
The repair option is the one to which Council gave a nod of consensus but there are a number of ifs: The city is still unsure if funding will be available. But, the seawall needs repairing, so the city is moving forward with the repairs with the hopes money may become available.
“I recommend that we move forward with the repair and the repair only,” Mayor John Gunter said, adding that it could only be a $400,000 allocation for expenditures for the repair for the city.
City Manager Michael Ilczyszyn said the process for repairing hurricane-damaged infrastructure follows two paths – emergency repair, or a federal process that takes time.
“The post disaster inspection was done in October 2022,” he said, following the Sept. 28 Hurricane Ian landfall. “As soon as streets were passable, we had inspectors. Once determined it was not an emergency, you fall into a federal process that takes time. What you do have were additional hurricanes – required to layer in amendments to an already complicated process.”
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