The Fort Myers Beach Pier Rebuild Begins

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Lee County Commissioner Brian Hamman told Beach Talk Radio Thursday that FEMA has given the county the go ahead to start the process to design and rebuild the Fort Myers Beach pier and Lynn Hall Park bathrooms.

Hamman said it will take about 6 months to hire a designer for the pier then another 6-8 months to design a new pier with input from the community. It’s not yet clear if the pier has to be built back exactly as it was or can be altered at all for FEMA to pay 100 percent of the cost. On Beach Talk Radio last weekend Hamman said there may be an option for FEMA to cover the cost to make the pier more resilient which could mean higher and or wider.

In all Hamman expects the pier project to take 36-41 months before its complete.

The pier was totally destroyed by Hurricane Ian on September 28, 2022. Both the pier and Lynn Hall Park are owned by Lee County. Hamman expects the Lynn Hall Park bathrooms also to take 36-41 months from demo to design to construction.

The Lynn Hall Park bathrooms, also destroyed by the hurricane, are expected to be demolished and removed any day now.

In recent weeks, Commissioner Hamman has been very vocal in wanting to see the pier and Lynn Hall Park bathrooms built back and built back as soon as possible. He’s also been frustrated with how long it takes FEMA to make decisions.

13 COMMENTS

  1. A pier will only bring more traffic and confusion at the FMB side of the bridge. Did the FMB residents benefit much from the pier? Just some food for thought. Enjoy the short drives to Walmart while they last.

  2. I was just looking on the internet and put “how many restaurants are there on the Indian Rocks Beach Florida beachfront” ( its a place I went swimming back in 9th grade) . It’s near Largo, Florida. I got not only hotels but also quite a lot of photos of restaurants that made the place look amazingly similar to how the restaurants in the Times Square section of Fort Myers Bech used to look. Yes in a couple there were a few high rises too.

  3. This time frame is ridiculous. I work for a print company and my primary clients are construction. I’ve seen hospitals go up faster than this. With technology, it is not going to take a designer 6-8 months to design a pier. This entire timeline is absurd.

  5. It only took 1 year and 45 days to build the empire state building!!! This is ridiculous and unacceptable. Nobody cares about getting things done, it’s all about lining people’s pockets with the governments money, sorry, our money!!!! Disgusting

    • 🤦‍♀️ The Empire State Building didn’t need to involve FEMA, DEP, USCOE, the myriad agencies involved in building a pier.

      “Lining pockets” – the facile response by those who don’t understand the process.

  8. Why so long? They have known since September 29 that it needs to be rebuilt.this past year they could have been looking for an engineer, and architect to draw up designs for the new pier and bathrooms. I know everyone had their hands full but this also is important to the lifeblood of Times Square.

    • “Important to the lifeblood of Times Square” Is it tho??? Seriously, how much time have you spent standing on the pier in the past 10 years??? PRIORITIES PEOPLE!!!!

    • “Important to the lifeblood of Times Square” Is it tho??? Seriously, how much time have you spent standing on the pier in the past 10 years??? PRIORITIES PEOPLE!!!!

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