Cape San Blas breakwater nears funding threshold

It’s been about seven years in the making, and now expected to cost about twice as much as it might have in 2018, but it looks like Gulf County is soon to be in a position to fund a proposed Cape San Blas breakwater designed to slow the ongoing erosion of its fragile shoreline.

Following their meeting last week in Tallahassee with key legislators, County Administrator Michael Hammond and Assistant Administrator Clay Smallwood sounded a positive note Monday that an additional $10 million in Florida Department of Environmental Protection monies, forecast to be in the upcoming state budget, should be enough to move the project forward.

“We won’t count our chickens before they’re hatched but if the legislature commits the money, I’ll ask the board to rebid and we could move on it by July,” said Hammond. “If we get the $10 million we’ll make the project work one way or another.”

Smallwood outlined a history of the project that dates back to 2018, when Mike Dombrowski, a consulting coastal protection engineer, did a feasibility study on what would amount to eight strategically placed barriers, extending about a mile north from the current rock jetty, a couple hundred yards offshore, spaced out below the mean low water mark.

Because they are designed to absorb the energy of incoming waves before they can impact the coast, breakwaters help to reduce erosion and promote sediment deposition along the shore. DEP has projected they could diminish beach erosion from wave energy by 60 to 80%, protecting the shoreline and preserving the area’s aesthetic appeal.

“They shouldn’t impede anything and they’ll have signs on them marking them,” said Hammond. “I assume fishing would be good around them.”

Originally priced at $18 million, the county soon got a first pot of DEP money of $15.5 million, and the process commenced on moving forward with the project, which was not immune to controversy.

Over the years the cost of the project grew, and it was bid out twice, at price tags of $35 million and $48 million, putting it out of reach for county officials without additional funding help.

Smallwood said the project now has in the vicinity of $28.8 million to work with, before the $10 million is factored in. This includes the original $15.5 million from DEP, another $3.6 million in Restore monies from the Deepwater Horizon BB oil spill; $3 million from the Gulf County Tourist Development Council; and $1.5 million from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation.

Hammond said that with help from the Army Corps of Engineers and other agencies, the county was able to secure a waiver of rules that would have halted the project during turtle nesting season.

“We got that relaxed so we can work year round,” he said. “This will drive competition among contractors to get a better price. We’ll find out. 

“July 1 is in the middle of turtle season,” Hammond said. “We hope we’ll be the only show in town and so they’ll stay in the Gulf and do our project.”

Hammond estimated the bids could come in at the $35 million to $38 million range, bringing the existing funding close enough that any gap could possibly be filled with TDC funds.

If all the numbers come in as foreseen, the entire project, which includes the dredging of about 800,000 cubic yards of sand placed on the beach and about a mile of rock put in place, could be completed in no more than 90 days.

“They can knock this out pretty quick,” Hammond said.