SNC-Lavalin, a fully integrated and global professional services and project management company based in Montreal, Quebec, has been awarded a design and engineering contract to replace the Shepard Broad Causeway in south Florida.

The current drawbridge, first opened in 1951, plays a critical role in carrying traffic on Florida Highway 922 between the beaches and mainland of Miami-Dade County over the navigable Intracoastal Waterway. The 1,630-ft.-long structure begins at Northeast 123rd Street in north Miami before becoming Kane Concourse in Bay Harbor and ending at 96th Street on the Surfside-Bal Harbour Islands border.

The causeway was named for Shepard Broad, a south Florida lawyer and developer, and the first mayor of Bay Harbor Islands. A gas station sits in the middle of the eastbound and westbound lanes of the bridge and allows people fueling their vehicles to take in stunning views of Biscayne Bay on both sides.

SNC-Lavalin has successfully delivered several similar Florida based projects, including Interstate 75 over the Caloosahatchee River, I-275's Howard Frankland Bridge across Tampa Bay, the Cortez Bridge over the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway in Bradenton Beach, and Tampa's I-4/Leroy Selmon Expressway Connector interchange.

The Shepard Broad Causeway project will provide multimodal safety improvements, increase mobility, enhance hurricane evacuation capability, and ease daily and seasonal congestion by replacing the aging bascule bridge with one that meets current design standards and is consistent with United States Coast Guard (USCG) regulations, the company said in a Jan. 9 release.

"Our longstanding expertise in the transportation sector enables us to tailor our capabilities, thereby helping our clients develop safer, more reliable, customer focused solutions that solve today's problems while also considering future demands," said Ian L. Edwards, president and CEO of SNC-Lavalin.

Under the multi-year contract, the company will serve as the prime consultant on the Miami-Dade County project, providing the feasibility and environmental study, development of both concept plan and full design packages, and construction engineering and inspection (CEI) services.

In addition, the SNC-Lavalin team will focus on minimizing project delays and ensuring schedule efficiency.

"Using innovative digital technology tools, such as rendering visualizations and digital twin 3D modeling, we help our clients fully explore all the conceptual design options," explained George Nash, CEO, Atkins North America, a member of the SNC-Lavalin Group. "Our team has a comprehensive knowledge of Florida's goals, policies, and initiatives, and is well positioned to deliver a new bridge and accessible causeway that is safe, sustainable, and will serve the community's needs for decades."

Founded in 1911, SNC-Lavalin has offices around the world dedicated to engineering a better future for Earth and its people.

The company noted in its news release that it creates "sustainable solutions that connect people, technology and data to design, deliver and operate the most complex projects. We deploy global capabilities locally to our clients and deliver unique end-to-end services across the whole life cycle of an asset including consulting, advisory and environmental services, intelligent networks and cybersecurity, design, engineering, procurement, project management, operations and maintenance."

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