CONTENT EXPIRES: December 31, 2028 

After Hurricane Ian severed the three-mile Sanibel Causeway near Fort Myers, Florida, the reconstruction — FDOT's first emergency progressive design-build project — faced unprecedented challenges that might have derailed projects using other delivery methods. This session will detail hard-won lessons learned through adapting and collaborating under extreme pressure. Our panel will discuss how the Superior Construction-The de Moya Group Joint Venture Team handled the significant obstacles this project faced: complete infrastructure collapse requiring workers to be housed in airport trailers and taken to the jobsite by boat, telecommunications failures forcing reliance on satellite technology, permit complications forcing construction sequencing reversals, and scope changes after three 2024 hurricanes damaged incomplete sections and forced real-time design modifications. Despite these complications, the team restored emergency access within only one week, enabling a convoy of utility and emergency vehicles to access the island, and delivered the $328 million permanent reconstruction two years ahead of schedule and under budget. Attendees will learn frameworks for qualifications-based team selection, techniques for maintaining collaboration when infrastructure fails, strategies for managing concurrent emergency and permanent work when scope cannot be defined upfront, and cost control approaches using task-order structures. Session aligns with Design-Build in Times of Crisis Category.