Matanzas Pass to be dredged this summer
For the first time since 2009, major dredging will occur this summer in Matanzas Pass, giving relief to the boats that travel along the federal channel and sometimes bottom out.
“Right now, by the point (of Estero Island’s northern tip) I’d say it’s about only 8 or 9 feet deep at low tide,” said Dennis Henderson, co-owner of Trico Shrimp Company on San Carlos Island. “We’re getting stuck.”
The project, to be funded and overseen by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, will result in the removal of approximately 130,000 cubic yards of sand, bringing the channel to a recommended depth of at least 14 feet. The cost is projected between $1 million and $5 million.
That amount of sand, when dumped upon a football field, would fill it 60 feet high. It will be relocated to Fort Myers Beach and placed about 100 feet offshore, in between the Lani Kai and the Red Coconut RV Park, according to Town Manager Don Stilwell. When in place, it will diminish wave strength and slowly feed sand onto the beach area.
The sand, because of impurities, can’t just be dumped directly on the beach, said Stephen Boutelle, an operations manager with Lee County’s Natural Resources Division.
“Placing sand on a dry beach has many restrictions – especially in Florida,” he said.
The project is open to bids that are due April 12. It must be completed within 100 days of its start, which would likely be in June.
Henderson, whose company has a fleet of shrimping boats and works with independent boats, said the news is good but he thinks more can be done.
“What they really need to do is build a jetty at the point of the island,” he said. “Now, the tide just fills in the channel and the jetty would prevent that.
“And those channels move all the time, too. The (U.S.) Coast Guard is always replanting those channel markers.”