State Partnership Program

Video by San Luciano Vera

Ben Sawyer Bridge Corps 30 Year Anniversary

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Charleston District

Sept. 11, 2019 | 4:19

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Charleston District Former Chief of Design Mark Nelson volunteered to assist the South Carolina Department of Transportation after Hurricane Hugo struck the coast, on midnight Sept. 21, 1989, and damaged the Ben Sawyer Bridge.

Category 4 Hurricane Hugo crossed Sullivan's Island traveling at nearly 25 miles-an-hour with hurricane-force winds ranging out 140 miles from the eye and pushing a tidal surge that ranged as high as 15 feet above mean sea level.

The signature piece of the district’s post-storm work was the repair of the 240-foot long, 500-ton swing span of the Ben Sawyer Bridge across the Intracoastal Waterway and at the time, the only land connection to the barrier islands north of Charleston Harbor.

The bridge sits on a single 18- to 20-inch bronze bearing that rests on its center support pier. Sometime during the storm, the bridge spun and slid into the inland waterway with its Mt. Pleasant end mired and facing Sullivan’s Island and its Sullivan’s Island end high in the air pointing to Mt. Pleasant.

The Corps team had the bridge back in place within two weeks of awarding the contract.

Video By: Luciano Vera