County Council Approves Measures To Repair/Replace Dune Walkovers

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Volusia County, FL - Update: In Thursday's session the Volusia County Council unanimously approved 2 task assignments that deal with dune walkovers damaged or destroyed by Hurricane Matthew.

"We lost a lot of our ADA ramps," said Jessica Winterwerp, Coastal Director for Volusia County, during the meeting. "Due to the nature of an ADA ramp, it is a structure that is parallel to the shore and as the waves hit it, if we had a 6 foot swell line, that force is hitting something that is a blunt force object. That object receives this force as the wave comes in it gets push and then as the wave comes out it gets pulled. That's why all of our ADA ramps suffered significant damage."

Earlier Reporting:

There are 3 agenda items going before the County Council in Thursday's meeting that have to do with dune walkovers damaged or destroyed by Hurricane Matthew.

The council will be given a presentation outlining progress made since Hurricane Matthew and the plan set in place to repair/replace the county's walkovers. Every County maintained dune walkover was affected by the hurricane with severity ranging from collection of debris to the complete loss of the structure.

The council will review a task assignment for the demolition of 38 dune crossovers and a portion of the walkover that leads to the jetty at Lighthouse Point Park. Those walkovers were all significantly damaged by the storm. The council's been encouraged to approve the motion, which would allocate $57,590 for Down to Earth Trucking, Inc., out of New Smyrna Beach to demolish those walkovers.

"Demolition will start as soon as council approves the contract," said Jessica Winterwerp, Coastal Director for Volusia County. "We may start as soon as Friday, pending an approval tomorrow. They will get most of the work done within 21 calendar days."

And finally the council will review a contract task assignment with Dredging & Marine Consultants, LLC, out of Port Orange, to put together a construction document for 22 dune walkovers that will have to be fully rebuilt. Dredging & Marine Consultants, LLC, is being tasked with dividing these walkovers into 4 separate regions.

"The reason we're doing 4 separate bid solicitations is so that we can break the walkovers out by geographical location and then we can bid 4 separate areas at 1 time," said Winterwerp. "And hopefully we'll have 4 separate contractors working on 4 different portions of the county. What this allows us to do is it reduces our total construction duration time, but it also allows us to go under construction in the unincorporated part of the county in the north end, the same time that we're doing work in Bethune and in Ormond Beach."

Approval of this motion is also being recommended. The project's expected to cost $110,060. The goal for reconstruction is to have started by the 3rd quarter of fiscal 2017.

17 additional walkovers will be repaired in house, according to Winterwerp, in coordination with the demolition contractor. The goal of these repairs is to have those 17 walkovers opened back up by the end of March.

"As you may be aware, turtle season begins in April and we will be having to construct the 22 contractor walkways during turtle season," added Winterwerp. "We will have special measures in place so that before any construction begins each day we will have a turtle survey. We'll work around the turtle's schedule."

Winterwerp also wanted to remind residents that while there will be restricted access due to demolition, construction, and repairs, handicapped individuals get free access to the beach every day of the year. All they have to do is show their handicapped placard or their handicapped license plate and they will get free access with their vehicle.

For more on these agenda items go to Volusia.org.

Photo courtesy SandiMako and Shutterstock.com.

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