Bids will be opened this morning at 10:35 for the massive pipeline beach renourishment project the town is hoping to start in June. The bids were originally expected to be opened Monday April 15th, then they were moved to Friday the 19th before being moved to today.
The first round of bids for this project came in $10 million over the $22 million budget.
When both the truck-haul and dredging beach renourishment projects are complete, Fort Myers Beach will see $43 million worth of new sand (1.3 million yards). 900,000 yards of the 1.3 million will be from the dredging project with the balance from the truck-haul project.
The start of the dredging project is contingent upon a vendor actually meeting the $22 million budget.
The approximately $22 Million beach renourishment project is being funded through multiple sources: Lee County ($6,431,534), The Florida Department of Environmental Protection ($14,013,346), FEMA ($1,408,050) and the town ($2,247,741).
The bids will be opened at 10:35 on Tuesday, April 23rd at Town Hall and we will broadcast it live on our Facebook page and on our YouTube Channel.
Yes, it’s a lot of money, but we’ve allowed massive development on a big sandbar, a.k.a., Estero Island. Unless we are willing to see the island return to the sea over time, what alternatives do we have? That’s not a rhetorical question. A former key town staffer once expressed to me that the town should outlaw bringing in fill for home construction because it was too difficult to administer. Huh? Like it or not, sea levels are rising and storms are getting more severe and more frequent. Has anyone noticed that streets under the Matanzas Pass Bridge regularly flood from just an above-average high tide? Either find ways to preserve the Island or Mother Nature will gradually take it back.
Biggest waste of Taxpayer Dollars