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Barge ready to pump sand onto Treasure Coast beaches
HENRY A. STEPHENS ? [email protected]
A jackup barge, owned by Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Inc., sets up off Vero Beach's Treasure Cove to pump sand in the county's newest beach restoration project. (see pic)
By HENRY A. STEPHENS
[email protected]
March 2, 2007
INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — Betty Stern, who moved from Houston to Vero Beach seven years ago, knows all about beaches lined with derricks.
And that's what she thought was in the local waters earlier this week as she peered south from Jaycee Beach.
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"I'm from Texas, darlin', and we know what oil derricks look like," Stern, 77, said Thursday. "First thing I thought was, 'Forget the Gulf (of Mexico). The place to go for now is the mid-Atlantic.' I thought this was bold."
Stern said she had fun imagining all kinds of exotic explanations, such as a fishing station for foreign interests bent on stripping Florida waters of seafood.
"It's Dr. No and James Bond all over again," she said.
In fact, it's a jackup barge, a boat lifted above the water level on four legs. Observers can see hose sections leading from the deck structure into the water.
The hoses will soon pump sand out of dredge ships' cargo holds and send it through pipes onto the beach, county Coastal Resource Manager Jonathan Gorham said Thursday. Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Inc. will use the barge as a pumping station when the company starts on the county's latest beach-restoration project — once it can find a way to get the rest of its equipment to the beach from State Road A1A.
On a $6.8 million county contract, the company is supposed to place 363,000 cubic yards of sand by May 1 on what is deemed the county's worst-eroded beach, from Sandpointe south to The Moorings.
Gorham said Great Lakes, with offices in Jupiter, plans to have dredge ships suck the sand from Round Island, sail it north to the project area and connect with the pumping station, where the sand will be sent through pipes to the beach.
When the pumping starts is yet to be decided. Great Lakes gave Gorham a date of March 10. But Thursday, Gorham said, the company still doesn't have a confirmed access point for moving its heavy equipment from State Road A1A to the beach. The project site is lined with private property, and residents are reluctant to let Great Lakes use their lots to reach the beach.
"We continue to look for options, though it is very late in the game," he said. "Surfside Terrace seems to be the only viable access we have now."
And residents there have protested that proposal, citing destruction of sprinkler heads and mailboxes when the Federal Emergency Management Agency used the street in 2004. Gorham said Great Lakes' 50 flatbed trucks would be less of a problem than the thousands of dump trucks FEMA used.
Meanwhile, he said he told members of the South Beach Property Owners' Association to expect the jackup barge, but said some residents must not have gotten word.
Some beachside residents said they figured the barge had something to do with beach restoration, but said they couldn't see why it was off Treasure Cove when the project is farther south.
"I can't comprehend, if the beach restoration is miles south of here, why we have to have something like that in our backyards?" Dunes resident Beverly Swatt asked Thursday.
She said she moved here five years ago from Boca Raton, and knew about failed experiments in which Broward County tried using used tires for artificial reefs — only to have to remove them later for environmental reasons.
She said she called Gorham out of concern the pump station would be hurting the environment.
Swatt and Linda McBride, of Treasure Cove, both said they live on the few beaches that are gaining sand while others eroded. They don't need the new sand, they said, but are left with the pump station.
"The other night, there were tugs, I do believe, laying pipe to it," McBride said Thursday. "The diesel smell was disgusting."
The pump station's location means the pipes will come out of the surf to the beach east of McBride's home and then bend south to the project area.
Gorham said Treasure Cove's beach was chosen for the pipes because there is no rock-reef habitat there.
In nearby segments, he said, the pipes would have to cross rock reefs and pose danger to the marine life.
• It's a type of barge that can stand on the ocean bottom using three or four legs or supporting columns.
• After the crew moves the barge into place, they lower the columns, usually by a hydraulic system. The whole barge can then be jacked up when the legs touch the sea floor.
• The barge can serve as a mobile platform, often used as a diving platform or for oil drilling.
HENRY A. STEPHENS ? [email protected]
A jackup barge, owned by Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Inc., sets up off Vero Beach's Treasure Cove to pump sand in the county's newest beach restoration project. (see pic)
By HENRY A. STEPHENS
[email protected]
March 2, 2007
INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — Betty Stern, who moved from Houston to Vero Beach seven years ago, knows all about beaches lined with derricks.
And that's what she thought was in the local waters earlier this week as she peered south from Jaycee Beach.
Advertisement
"I'm from Texas, darlin', and we know what oil derricks look like," Stern, 77, said Thursday. "First thing I thought was, 'Forget the Gulf (of Mexico). The place to go for now is the mid-Atlantic.' I thought this was bold."
Stern said she had fun imagining all kinds of exotic explanations, such as a fishing station for foreign interests bent on stripping Florida waters of seafood.
"It's Dr. No and James Bond all over again," she said.
In fact, it's a jackup barge, a boat lifted above the water level on four legs. Observers can see hose sections leading from the deck structure into the water.
The hoses will soon pump sand out of dredge ships' cargo holds and send it through pipes onto the beach, county Coastal Resource Manager Jonathan Gorham said Thursday. Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Inc. will use the barge as a pumping station when the company starts on the county's latest beach-restoration project — once it can find a way to get the rest of its equipment to the beach from State Road A1A.
On a $6.8 million county contract, the company is supposed to place 363,000 cubic yards of sand by May 1 on what is deemed the county's worst-eroded beach, from Sandpointe south to The Moorings.
Gorham said Great Lakes, with offices in Jupiter, plans to have dredge ships suck the sand from Round Island, sail it north to the project area and connect with the pumping station, where the sand will be sent through pipes to the beach.
When the pumping starts is yet to be decided. Great Lakes gave Gorham a date of March 10. But Thursday, Gorham said, the company still doesn't have a confirmed access point for moving its heavy equipment from State Road A1A to the beach. The project site is lined with private property, and residents are reluctant to let Great Lakes use their lots to reach the beach.
"We continue to look for options, though it is very late in the game," he said. "Surfside Terrace seems to be the only viable access we have now."
And residents there have protested that proposal, citing destruction of sprinkler heads and mailboxes when the Federal Emergency Management Agency used the street in 2004. Gorham said Great Lakes' 50 flatbed trucks would be less of a problem than the thousands of dump trucks FEMA used.
Meanwhile, he said he told members of the South Beach Property Owners' Association to expect the jackup barge, but said some residents must not have gotten word.
Some beachside residents said they figured the barge had something to do with beach restoration, but said they couldn't see why it was off Treasure Cove when the project is farther south.
"I can't comprehend, if the beach restoration is miles south of here, why we have to have something like that in our backyards?" Dunes resident Beverly Swatt asked Thursday.
She said she moved here five years ago from Boca Raton, and knew about failed experiments in which Broward County tried using used tires for artificial reefs — only to have to remove them later for environmental reasons.
She said she called Gorham out of concern the pump station would be hurting the environment.
Swatt and Linda McBride, of Treasure Cove, both said they live on the few beaches that are gaining sand while others eroded. They don't need the new sand, they said, but are left with the pump station.
"The other night, there were tugs, I do believe, laying pipe to it," McBride said Thursday. "The diesel smell was disgusting."
The pump station's location means the pipes will come out of the surf to the beach east of McBride's home and then bend south to the project area.
Gorham said Treasure Cove's beach was chosen for the pipes because there is no rock-reef habitat there.
In nearby segments, he said, the pipes would have to cross rock reefs and pose danger to the marine life.
• It's a type of barge that can stand on the ocean bottom using three or four legs or supporting columns.
• After the crew moves the barge into place, they lower the columns, usually by a hydraulic system. The whole barge can then be jacked up when the legs touch the sea floor.
• The barge can serve as a mobile platform, often used as a diving platform or for oil drilling.
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This is not the trucked in crap at Wabasso and Corrigans. This will be dredged in pipes from just south of the Tracking Station and north of Rio Mar, I believe, and deposited from Sandepointe south.
