After Sanibel Causeway collapses in Hurricane Ian, Hilton Head Islanders are asking ‘what if?’
When Hurricane Ian extensively damaged the Sanibel Island Causeway in Florida, some Hilton Head residents began to consider a concerning “what if” scenario for their island.
Ian ripped across Florida’s Gulf Coast as a Category 4 storm last week, causing catastrophic damage in Fort Myers and killing nearly 100. As every community impacted by the disaster begins recovery, Sanibel Island and nearly 300 households find themselves cut off from the mainland.
For Hilton Head Islander Nancylee Landi, the severe impact on Sanibel is one more reason she’s hoping the Town of Hilton Head quickly reaches an agreement with Beaufort County on the U.S. 278 corridor project.
“The reality that hits home is just the thought of the isolation, the thought of even if I survive and my property survives, we cannot get back,” Landi said. “What that entails in a climate such as ours ... if you don’t get back to your home for several months or up to a year for repairs, you might as well just kiss it goodbye.”
Hilton Head resident Tom Hoppin, who’s vacationed on Sanibel Island previously and driven over the Sanibel Island Causeway, said he was shocked to see how badly Ian damaged what he thought was a “pretty solid roadway.”
“I hope that we have leadership at the state and county that have seen the images all the rest of us have seen,” Hoppin said. “It’s a testament to the power mother nature can have.”
Landi said with the eastbound bridge onto Hilton Head island already rated as structurally deficient, she’s uncertain it would survive a major storm. To quickly secure a safe way on and off the island, she said she now supports moving forward with the county’s vision of a single six-lane bridge built to withstand a Category 5 hurricane.
Not everyone agrees.
The South Carolina Department of Transportation plans also call for reducing the overall size of the causeway by bridging across Pinckney Island and Hog Island, potentially limiting the type of damage seen on Sanibel Island. Much of that damage was focused on areas of the causeway atop a sandbar rather than supporting pylons in the water, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Friday.
Landi was originally among the nearly 10,000 island residents who signed a petition to reject SCDOT’s design. After reviewing the state documents herself, she said she was confident SCDOT had a sound plan and trusts the group to execute it.
She has since removed her name from the petition, she said.
Could history repeat itself?
The eastbound bridge across Mackay Creek, built in 1982, is aging and “scheduled for replacement” according to the South Carolina Department of Transportation. The Sanibel Causeway was originally constructed in 1963, and its current bridges were completed in 2007.
Yet for the current 278 bridge’s age, some residents recall life long before it existed.
Thomas Barnwell has lived on Hilton Head Island since 1935. He said he’s likely one of the few remaining who have firsthand experience with the issues Hilton Head could experience if a bridge were rendered unusable.
In 1974, a barge damaged the former James Byrnes Bridge, leaving it inoperable for about a month.
Barnwell recalled the logistical nightmares that followed — quickly arranged ferry services carrying far more passengers than they were used to. Hours-long waits for vehicles to cross the temporary pontoon bridge provided by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Healthcare services, schools, law enforcement and businesses would all suffer if an island inlet was knocked out for any reason, Barnwell said. The impact would be even more severe today than it was in 1974, with the island’s growth since then and an increased reliance on workers from the mainland.
A 2018 assessment of housing needs on the island found that, at that time, about 62% of island jobs were held by people who commuted to Hilton Head from the mainland.
“I’m concerned that those who represent us now politically did not have that experience that many of us had,” Barnwell said. “I would hope that they very seriously consider having two bridges come from the Bluffton area to Hilton Head.”
Barnwell said he’s also concerned for the long-term, and how future climate change could cause more intense hurricane impacts for which today’s bridges may not be built.
The idea that a warming climate leads to more severe rainfall events and more frequent hurricane formation has been supported by NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Besides the hurricane considerations, two bridges would also help alleviate traffic through the U.S. 278 corridor, former county councilman Steven Baer said, which has been a stated goal of the project. Baer said state and county officials have not given the alternatives sufficient examination and are moving forward too quickly with the current proposal to replace the existing bridges with one six-lane bridge.
“We need a fair review of all our options, and we have not had that yet,” Baer said. “The foremost option is a real second bridge. I’ve heard the county press officer poo-poo it, I’ve heard a town lawyer poo-poo it, but there hasn’t been an engineering look at it. We have no idea what the cost would be or its issues.”
Baer was instrumental in launching the petition to reject the current U.S. 278 proposal, in part because he feels the county and SCDOT have “started at the answer they want and moved backwards.” He has been a proponent for a “truly independent review” of potential costs and solutions to the current 278 corridor’s traffic and safety issues.
“We have no idea what the total cost of the county’s plan, and any additions they have to put on it to get to those points, are. No idea whatsoever,” Baer said.
Officials confident moving forward
The potential for two bridges has been removed under the county’s current plan, but county and state officials aren’t concerned Hilton Head’s mainland connections could fail in the same way as Sanibel Island’s.
Hilton Head officials reluctantly stated they would support a single-bridge project at a lengthy Sept. 20 Town Council meeting, and Beaufort County Councilman Stu Rodman told the Island Packet the Town has withdrawn any request for a split bridge as previously suggested by MKSK, the planning consultant the Town hired in 2021.
Rodman said the split bridges would raise the project costs by around $25 million, the county concluded, and “intrude on homes” in Mariner’s Cove.
Project proposals with a completely independent second bridge were also declined. A separate connection to the island would broaden environmental impacts and could be “well in excess of $1 billion,” Rodman said.
The causeways leading up to the island’s bridges are simpler to repair and maintain than proper bridge sections, and have been buoyed in recent years, Rodman said.
Leland Colvin, SCDOT deputy secretary for engineering, said since U.S. 278 is a national highway, its construction is required to meet stricter requirements than state roads.
“We know what the state is vulnerable to ... and design resilience is not a new word for us,” Colvin said. “The good news is that (278) is a U.S. route, so it’s built to higher standards than our other causeways leading to smaller barrier islands.”
This story was originally published October 4, 2022 at 1:14 PM.
