Shifting Sands

Wednesday, October 26, 2005
By RYAN DEZEMBER Staff Reporter
ORANGE BEACH -- It will cost nearly $6.7 million to replace more than 1.1 million cubic yards of sand that was brought ashore as part of a $25 million beach renourishment project this summer before being lost in hurricanes Dennis and Katrina.
The good news for Gulf Shores and Orange Beach, which have partnered in the project with the state, is that the Federal Emergency Management Agency and its Alabama counterpart will pick up 85 percent of the cost.
Just as the emergency management agencies would pay for a road, bridge or other engineered structures to be rebuilt after a storm, repairs to the 16 miles of manmade beach have qualified for government funding. FEMA will pay 75 percent of the cost, the state Emergency Management Agency will pick up another 10 percent while the cities and the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, which oversees Gulf State Park, are responsible for the remaining 15 percent.
In addition, Orange Beach and park management will be responsible for some costs involved in replacing sea oats and sand fencing that were lost in the hurricanes, but those expenses have not yet been tabulated. The flora and fencing had not been placed in Gulf Shores because about two miles along West Beach have yet to receive any sand, so there will be no plant replacement costs for that city.
Gulf Shores Public Works director Chuck Hamilton said the company that is dredging sand from the bottom of the Gulf and pumping it ashore, New Orleans-based Bean-Stuyvesant LLC, is scheduled to resume work this week to finish the beach building along the last two miles of West Beach.
Once that's finished, crews will return to Perdido Key near the Florida line, move underwater pipelines back to a dredge site off Orange Beach's shoreline and beginning filling in the spaces left by Dennis and Katrina, Orange Beach City Administrator Jeff Moon said.
"I think they'll probably set our pipe right before Christmas," said Phillip West, Orange Beach coastal resource manager, who has overseen the project for the city. "It should be finished by Feb. 11."
Orange Beach will get about 709,800 cubic yards of sand to replace that washed away this summer. It will cost a little over $4 million but the city's bill, including a portion of the $625,000 to reset the equipment, is likely to total less than $700,000, according to proposed changes to the contract with Bean-Stuyvesant.
The cost of the sand has risen since the local governments first selected the New Orleans dredging firm last October.
For one, diesel fuel, which powers the dredge boats, pumps and bulldozers, has risen dramatically, Moon said. Secondly, the project design and equipment on site is intended to pump up more than 100 cubic yards of sand per foot of shoreline though it will send far less ashore during the repairs, Moon said.
"There's more losses pumping only 20 or 30 (cubic) yards a foot than there would be pumping 100," West said. "We're just losing that economy of scale."
The Orange Beach City Council approved the contract changes at its Monday evening meeting.
In Gulf Shores, where engineers estimate that 380,000 cubic yards of sand was lost east of Lagoon Pass and 330,000 cubic yards washed away west of the inlet, the City Council also approved the renourishment changes at its Monday meeting.
In a resolution, the council authorized the addition of more than $1.5 million to the agreement with Bean-Stuyvesant, but that amount reflects the costs of finishing West Beach, dredging additional sand, sifting debris-filled sand that was hurriedly returned surfside after Katrina, and taking back sand that was washed onto private property during the storm, said Public Works director Chuck Hamilton.
According to the contract change documents, only 180,000 cubic yards will need to be dredged and pumped ashore to replace the losses in Gulf Shores once measures to reclaim sand from private property are finished.
The Conservation and Natural Resources Department, which is the only body yet to approve the contract changes, will pay about $200,000 for dredged replacement sand and the equipment moves, according to the contract documents.
After rebuilding the shore of Orange Beach, crews will fix the state park beaches before winding up in Gulf Shores. Because of delays caused by this summer's storms and the repair work, Bean-Stuyvesant has until March 31 to complete the project, according to the contract changes.