Image provided by SCDOT/PCL

The Ben Sawyer Bridge will be replaced with a new swing span and will have a 5.5’ pedestrian lane connected by sidewalks on the Mount Pleasant and Sullivan’s Island approaches.

Image provided by SCDOT/PCL

The $31.5 million project is funded entirely by federal dollars and will take less than two years to complete.

Image provided by SCDOT/PCL

The new bridge will be very similar to the old one but more modern and functional.

At last Tuesday’s council meeting, Leland Colvin with the South Carolina Department of Transportation said that a contract has been signed to replace the swing span bridge.

Bridge  work is expected to begin by the end of this month.

Councilman Everett Presson said, “It’s a great day on Sullivan’s Island.”

Presson added that he appreciates the highway department sharing all of this with council.

At one time the island was divided between wanting a fixed span bridge and a swing span bridge.

“The project has been on and off the table since the late 1970s,”  said Sullivan’s Island Town Administrator Andy Benke. The current structure, which was placed in service circa 1945, is often considered a Sullivan’s Island icon much like Fort Moultrie, the lighthouse and the beach. This plan will give residents and visitors to the island, along with vessels transiting the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway, a safe and reliable structure which has the appearance of the existing bridge.”

PCL Civil Constructors, Inc. of Tampa, Fla. won the design build contract. The process will include building the swing span at the Naval Shipyard in North Charleston.

According to onsite project manager Kimwood  Partenheimer, of Parsons Brinkerhoff, PCL is proposing to build temporary platforms called tressles so that they can build the new bridge approaches on the temporary tressles.

Parsons Brinkerhoff specializes in construction management for transportation projects.

Partenheimer said that when the new approaches are built, they are going to cut loose the existing slabs (what the public is driving on now) and push them on temporary platforms.

Then the new bridge approach will be pushed onto the current bridge foundation.

“Right now there are 2 and a half feet of sidewalk on each side of the bridge,” he said.

The new bridge will have 5 and a half feet of sidewalk on the west side of it, according to Partehheimer.

The $31.5 million project is funded entirely by federal dollars and is expected to take less than two years to complete.

Partenheimer said that according to the proposed schedule, the bridge will be closed the first week in November.

There is already a detour plan in place.

“Sullivan’s Island is appreciative of and thankful for the cooperation and input from the Department of Transportation, Town of Mount Pleasant, and City of Isle of Palms on the project,” Benke said.

(Helen Ravenel can be reached at helen@moultrienews.com. Comment on this story at www.moultrienews.com.)