The big beach renourishment project will restart in two days after a piece of machinery the contractor was using needed to be repaired. The project, which started on the north end of the island, is now up to the Times Square area where the beach will be lengthened by over 100 feet.
This past Saturday our walkaround featured Town of Fort Myers Beach Environmental Manager Chad Chustz who gave a very detailed update on the beach renourishment project which will add a total of 300,000 cubic yards to Fort Myers Beach.
The original plan was to have the project completed by the end of 2024. However, hurricanes Helene and Milton caused delays that will push completion into the first quarter of 2025. During those two hurricanes the company dredging the sand had to remove its barge from the water.
40,000 cubic yards of sand were taken out of the project by Helene and Milton. 30,000 cubic yards will be able to be saved and put back onto the beach. Chustz said about 11,000 cubic yards of sand was lost and he will be making a request to FEMA for help to replace that sand.
While the work will be ongoing during the sand sculpting event at DiamondHead later this month Chustz says the pipes will be buried by the time the project reaches DiamondHead and there will be no disruption to the event. “We are planning around it. The pipe will be buried so there will be minimal impact.”
The beach renourishment project goes all the way down to Suncaper at 7930 Estero Boulevard. Leonard Arms, which has one of its building basically sitting in the Gulf, will get 250 feet of new beach which should help protect it from future storms.
Watch our video with Chustz from last Saturday HERE.
TLM = Turtle Lives Matter 🐢
Thank you Ed for featuring the beach
Renourishment project on Sat. Mr C. gave a great explanation of the process. I’ve seen it before but never had an up close step by step explanation. This is just one reason to support BTR… always interesting, informative and local.