Posted on February 18, 2020
The multi-pronged project, anticipated to cost at least $2 million, is set to start near the end of the month and could be completed in about 30 days.
DESTIN – After almost two years-worth of delays, the dredging of sand that clogs up the East Pass navigation channel next to Destin is about to get underway.
The multi-pronged project, anticipated to cost at least $2 million, is set to start near the end of the month and could be completed in about 30 days.
About 250,000 cubic yards of sand that will be dredged will be placed on Holiday Isle beaches in Destin.
“We are developing this plan jointly with the city of Destin,” Craig Coffey, Okaloosa County’s deputy county administrator of operations, said Wednesday.
The overall project is expected to make the East Pass safer and easier to navigate for military vessels, charter fishing boats and other watercraft and renourish the heavily eroded beaches east of the east jetty. The pass was last dredged in 2014.
The cost of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers-led project will be paid for with $1.5 million in federal money and at least $500,000 in county bed-tax revenue.
Mike Hooks LLC is the contractor for the project, county spokesman Christopher Saul said Thursday. The company is based in Westlake, Louisiana.
In the past two years, the Corps of Engineers twice agreed to dredge the East Pass and then reneged on its commitment after sending dredging contractors to other projects instead.
Local government officials also have had to overcome legal challenges from several Okaloosa Island residents who opposed all of the dredged sand going to Holiday Isle.
The residents, who say the Holiday Isle beaches are private and inaccessible to the public, tried to get at least some of the sand placed on Okaloosa Island.
The permit to dredge the East Pass was issued by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.
Like the county, the FDEP sides with the Inlet Management Plan for the East Pass. The plan calls for the dredged sand to be placed where it’s needed the most. Currently, that is Holiday Isle, according to county officials.
Source: nwfdailynews.com
