Contractors work to fix leak from sand dredging pipe
As beachgoers were enjoying another day in paradise at Lynn Hall Memorial Park this past Thursday during spring break week on Fort Myers Beach, the serene atmosphere was abruptly upended when a sand dredge pipe burst open in the middle of the beach opening a large hole with quicksand and gushing water.
Though the leak was ultimately repaired, the town announced that its beach renourishment project will be further delayed to May 31 as it works to pump sand to the southern section of the island. The town’s efforts have been concentrated lately around Leonardo Arms, which has been in need of renourishment around its depleted shoreline for years.
The new delays means that the town’s beleaguered beach renourishment project, which was supposed to have been completed in January, will now extend into sea turtle nesting season. The state’s sea turtle nesting season for Fort Myers Beach begins May 1 and could cause complications for threatened sea turtles who will now have to navigate around large sand dredging pipes that are stretched along approximately four miles of the beach and pose safety risks to the turtles.
The town’s sand renourishment and sand dredging project has already interfered with the first two months of the shorebird nesting season for Southwest Florida. The town has four threatened shorebirds that nest on the island. Last year, the town’s sand haul project also interfered with shorebird nesting season. The town has received waivers from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection to continue its project through the shorebird nesting season.
Officials with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) did not respond to questions about the latest delays and extension of the town’s project into sea turtle nesting season.
Town of Fort Myers Beach Environmental Projects Manager Chadd Chustz
said the DEP just issued an extension and modification to the town’s beach renourishment permit.
Contractors from Ahtna Marine and Construction Company worked this past Thursday to fix the water leak at Lynn Hall Memorial Park after a sand dredging pipe split early in the afternoon, causing water to shoot up from underneath the sand in a large swath of the town’s busiest section of beach at Lynn Hall Memorial Park.
Mike Case was on the beach with his family when the incident occurred.
“All the sudden it made a big hole,” Case said. “It was a terrible odor at first. People picked up their stuff and left. The beach was full,” he said.
“It started saucing up and down,” Case said. He advised people around the developing hole to get out of the way. “It started gushing up. I told those people you need to clear out.”
Case said there was a lot of commotion, with people hollering, picking up their belongings to get out of the way and commenting on the smell.
“It looks like a volcano fixing to blow,” Case said while watching a sinkhole emerge in the middle of the beach after the pipe burst and quicksand quickly opened up in the hole as water gushed.
Chustz urged the public on Thursday to avoid the area until the repair was completed. “Wet sand looks like quicksand. Quicksand looks like wet sand. So you can sink pretty deep, pretty quick. You want to avoid that area while equipment is on the way to repair the pipe,” Chustz said.
Fort Myers Beach Communications Director Nicole Berzin said Saturday that the leak was fixed.
Fort Myers Beach Councilmember John King said Thursday he had been informed that the hole that developed was acting like quicksand.
A video taken of the sputtering water and hole by an onlooker showed the water circling and gushing out.
The smell from the sand-mixed seawater initially led some to wonder if what they were witnessing was something different though Chris Hill, a superintendent from Ahtna Marine and Construction Company, said he believed it was purely a water leak that was caused by sand wearing out the pipe. “It happens on every job,” Hill said.
“Over time, you have sand wearing out the pipes which caused a split in the pipe. Over time, sand slides over the pipe and the bottom half, which wears out the pipe and it splits. It came out with water.”
Contractors worked to dig out the pipe and make repairs which lasted to late afternoon and early evening as a section of the park was closed off to allow for the equipment from the contractors to be transported on the beach to make the repairs. The pipe was then buried again under the sand.
“If we see a wet spot in the dirt, we try to dig it out immediately,” Hill said. .
Hill said this was the second time such a leak occurred in the project. The first time was near the beginning of the sand dredging project. Hill blamed it on the type of sand being used, which he said is “a real fine sand. It likes to float. It is a dusty, light sand,” he said. He said the sand has been blowing around due to the high winds in the area over the last several months, which included two hurricanes – Milton and Helene.
Hill said there is about four miles of pipe for the dredging and sand renourishment work. This is the longest dredging project he said he has worked on.
The work began last summer.
The pipe stretches for miles up the beach and is currently situated near Leonardo Arms, which has faced the largest erosion of its shoreline.
Instead of starting the beach renourishment project at Leonardo Arms last year after shorebird nesting season began, the town and its contractors started the project on the northern end of the island last summer. The contractors only began on the southern end of the project in January. The southern end of the island is where the bulk of the town’s shorebird nesting activity takes place.
The project has run several months past the expected completion time, which was in January. When the Town of Fort Myers Beach bid out the project and awarded the bid to Ahtna in May, the project was supposed to be completed in 180 days – with an allowance to 195 days. The project has now far exceeded that timeframe by more than three months.
The Town of Fort Myers Beach Council awarded the bid to Ahtna Marine and Construction Company last May despite a bid protest from Callan Marine. Callan Marine alleged that the bid by Ahtna was was more $15 million below the bid of Callan Marine as well as two other competitors who bid even hire, was not responsive to the bid specifications as it could not be completed on time based on the equipment Ahtna would have on hand based on its bid response.
On Thursday, Fort Myers Beach Environmental Project Manager Chadd Chustz said the project’s timeline has now been extended to May 31 after previously been extended to April 1 and then April 15. According to a source familiar with the workings of the project, the May 31 deadline announced by the town might not even be the actual timeframe for when the project is completed. There is a possibility the project could extend into June or July.
Shorebird nesting season started Feb. 15, which includes nesting for several threatened bird species that nest on the island. The sea turtle nesting season technically begins on May 1 though Turtle Time begins its work identifying nests and other sea turtle activity on the beach April 15.
Chustz said the town will work with Turtle Time to relocate any nests which need to be moved for safety reasons.
Chustz said Thursday a Wilson’s plover nest, an imperiled bird species in Florida, had been located with eggs on the island.
Town of Fort Myers Beach Manager Andy Hyatt and Town of Fort Myers Beach Mayor Dan Allers did not return messages seeking comment.
The incident Thursday occurred during what is historically one of the town’s busiest weeks, spring break.