PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. — Dredging was finally set to begin again at Pass-a-Grille Beach.
The county’s beach nourishment project was supposed to get started last month, but it's faced a series of delays.
“We started a little slower,” John Bishop, Pinellas County’s coastal manager, said.
Bishop says the first delay was obtaining a permit from the Army Corps of Engineers to pump sand out of the Pass-a-Grille Inlet.
Then, right after that, it was a mechanical issue with the equipment.
“They're trying to weld and fix things on the dredge,” Bishop said. “So, it's some kind of an issue on the dredge.”
With both obstacles now resolved, the project is resuming.
10 Tampa Bay was there Friday as tractors started moving sand again for the first time in weeks.
Eventually, Bishop says, they’ll be pumping tons of it, 24/7, out of the inlet and onto the beach.
“I think it's exciting,” beach visitor Jaime Spanos said. “I think it'll bring more people to be able to enjoy the beach. More tourism."
“It's impossible not to have this project going on,” beach visitor Digna Cabrera added. “It's to save our beaches or else we can't come out then!”
Businesses, glad to see things up and running again, would clearly like to see the project wrapped up as early as possible.
While not thrilled with the delayed start, they say bumps along the way are expected.
“It's great to hear,” Hurricane Restaurant Owner Rick Falkenstein said. “And the sand that they're getting is the sand that came off the beach. It's in the Pass-a-Grille channel, so it's a fine sugar sand. So, it's going to be like it was 20 years ago. Beautiful.”
In the first phase of the project, contractors were pumping sand from the Grand Canal at a much slower rate.
Dredging sand from the inlet, Bishop says, will be much faster.
In fact, at some point in the near future, he says they will likely have to shut down the stretch of sand south of the beach’s snack bar.
“Even now, but especially when construction starts, people need to stay out of the construction zone,” Bishop said. “It's marked off, the accesses that lead to the beach at that location are marked off.”
“Don't knock down the barriers or go around them,” he added. “It's not safe. There's heavy equipment operating. They need to stay out of that portion of the beach.”
When they close the southern end of the beach, the area north of the snack bar will remain open. Then, when they start pumping sand onto the northern end, the south side will reopen, Bishop explained.
Despite the late start, county workers say they're confident that they can still get both phases done in their original timeframe, with a targeted completion date of Oct. 31.