Posted on July 9, 2025
Fort Myers Beach officials now expect project to be completed by end of July
Town of Fort Myers Beach Manager Will McKannay said contractors working for the Town of Fort Myers Beach now expect to complete the town’s beach renourishment project by the end of July, following the latest missed target date of June 30 by Ahtna Marine and Construction.
The company is now more than five months behind schedule for when the sand renourishment project was supposed to be completed more than a year after it started. McKannay said the delays have been caused by equipment failures and the weather. “Progress has been slowed by mechanical issues and weather delays. The contractor now anticipates completion by the end of July,” McKannay said.
Ahtna Marine and Construction were supposed to have completed the work in January to avoid interfering with shorebird nesting season but have since been given multiple extensions by the Town of Fort Myers Beach deep into shorebird nesting season and now more than two months into sea turtle nesting season.
Fort Myers Beach Environmental Project Manager Chadd Chustz announced in May that he expected the work to be completed by June 30. That was the fourth extension the town had given the contractors following previous extensions the town and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection had signed off on for the project to go into shorebird nesting season, including work in and around the Little Estero Island Critical Wildlife Area.
Under the $21.7 million contract the Town of Fort Myers Beach Council awarded Ahtna Marine and Construction in May of 2024, despite a bid protest, the work was supposed to be completed within 180 days and an allowance of up to 195 days. If they didn’t finish the work in time, they face penalties of $750 a day.
Callen Marine, who had put in a bid of $37.19 million for the project last year, had filed a bid protest contending that the bid by Ahtna Marine and Construction Company was not responsive to the bid specifications as they would not be able to meet the timelines of the town based on the equipment they would have on hand. Town of Fort Myers Beach Attorney Becky Vose and former Town Manager Andy Hyatt recommended the town council award the bid to Ahtna Marine and Construction despite the bid protest.
“As of June 17, the contractor has completed beach construction from Avenida Pescadora to Dakota Ave Beach Access in the Central segment,” McKannay said.
Work is ongoing in two areas according to McKannay:
Southward from Dakota Ave to Lanark St (daytime only due to sea turtle nesting)
Northward from Avenida Pescadora to Connecticut Beach Access (nighttime only until the southern segment is complete, then 24/7)
To protect sea turtle hatchlings, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service “have waived the tiling requirement for this nesting season,” McKannay.
Turtle Time has relocated more than two dozen nests in order to avoid impacts from the beach renourishment project. Turtle Time has also recorded 259 false crawls of nesting loggerhead sea turtles, who can be discouraged by the piping. Sea turtle hatchlings are also threatened by the piping.
The piping stretches for miles across the island in the middle of the beach where it is exposed, where in other locations such as Lynn Hall Memorial Park it is underneath the sand and at one point is fenced in. The piping for the sand dredging includes a large section of the island where the metal pipes are exposed along with other equipment and machinery closer to Newton Beach Park
To date, $16.5 million of the $21.7 million contract has been completed, largely funded by state grants, McKannay said. “Staff continues to seek additional grant funding to reduce the Town’s financial burden,” he said.
The town has not yet released an accounting of how much the contractors have been penalized to date. The contractors were initially given an extension due to delays caused by Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton last fall.
In May, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) said the project’s work near the Little Estero Critical Wildlife Area in the south segment of the project had been completed. Chustz said in May that the remaining renourishment work would be centered around mid-island in the area near the Red Coconut RV Resort property, the old Junkanoo site and the area near Newton Beach Park.
Ahtna Marine and Construction did not respond to a message seeking comment.
The FWC has documented nesting of all state threatened shorebirds including American oystercatchers, black skimmers, least terns, snowy plovers and Wilson’s plovers throughout the project on the island. Shorebird nesting season began Feb. 15 and runs through the end of August. The town was originally given an extension by the DEP into March for its project. That extension was followed by another extension into
April, which was followed by another extension through May 15.
The project was given extensions by the town initially due to the impacts of Hurricane Milton and Helene last fall and later on due to equipment breakdowns and leaks in the sand dredging pipes used by the company. The leaks included high-profile bursts of water and sand from the piping at Lynn Hall Memorial Park which led to the evacuation of part of the beach when the sand turned into quicksand around the piping.
Areas around the Little Estero Island Critical Wildlife Area are currently taped off to protect nesting shorebirds, their hatchlings and their nests.
The town’s permit from the DEP includes conditions for shorebird protections that, when followed, “constitute avoidance of take,” Florida Department of Environmental Protection spokesman Ryan Sheets said. “There are daily shorebird surveys to determine if nesting occurs and conditions to buffer and monitor any nests that are located. While it is preferred that such projects occur outside nesting season, the ongoing project and sand placement should restore essential nesting habitat for coastal wildlife.”
The area around the sand dredging pipe for the Fort Myers Beach renourishment project is taped off in a section of Lynn Hall Memorial Park with a history of leaking and bursting. A couple incidents in April led to quicksand holes in the area.
The town’s beach renourishment project.
A bulldozer operated in Februrary by a contractor hired by the Town of Fort Myers Beach for the beach renourishment moves sand near a sandbar where hundreds of shorebirds have gathered on the first day of shorebird nesting season on Feb. 15.
Sand dredging piping for beach renourishment project on Fort Myers Beach.
The town’s beach renourishment project.
The Fort Myers Beach sand renourishment project is coming to a close on the southern section of the island.
Sand piping exposed over the sand mid-island on Fort Myers Beach.
Sand piping from the Fort Myers Beach sand renourishment project spread out across the island.
The metal on the sand dredging piping on Fort Myers Beach is among the hazards to nesting sea turtles and is why more than two dozen sea turtle nests have been relocated on Fort Myers Beach this season.
There have been more than 250 false crawls documented of sea turtles on Fort Myers Beach. Nesting sea turtles will turn away from nesting often when they encounter the sand dredge piping.
