Earlier this week, the Florida Department of Transportation awarded Superior Construction Southeast with the $171 million design-build contract for the Brooks Bridge Replacement Project.

• The project involves replacing the John T. Brooks Bridge which connects Fort Walton Beach to Okaloosa Island.

A design-build contract means the same company does the design and the construction. FDOT has a standard process called design-bid-build where you have one company that does the design, and then another company does the construction.

• As you can imagine, from bridge replacements to highway widening, transportation projects can take years to plan, design and build when each phase of the project occurs sequentially at separate times.

When a project needs to be expedited, FDOT considers contracting the project using the Design-Build method, which combines design and construction of a project under one contract. This allows construction to begin as designs are finalized, and also helps reduce costs.

According to FDOT District 3 spokesperson Ian Satter, Superior Construction Southeast will begin the design, which should take about a year to complete. Actual construction of the bridge will likely begin at some point in the Summer of 2023.

• In total, the project should take about 5-years to complete.
• There are 1,810 days in the contract, weather permitting.

Satter says that once the design is complete and they move into the construction portion, there will be a public information meeting just to show the general public what the final design is going to be, and that construction is now starting.

“It’ll be an update of what to expect during construction, as well as renderings of the project moving forward,” he said. “And when construction begins, we’ll probably have a construction meeting too at the beginning of the project.”