ST. PETE BEACH, Fla. — Hurricane Helene’s storm surge last September damaged critical infrastructure in Pass-a-Grille including a beach wall, road and seawall which need costly emergency repairs, according to St. Pete Beach Public Services Director Camden Mills.
“This is definitely a high priority project for us that we’re going to continue to investigate,” he said. “(The) two projects are some critical infrastructure that would pose life safety concerns.”
Mills estimated it would cost $5 million to repair the Pass-a-Grille Way seawall from 1st Ave. to 12th Ave., where a lot of soil beneath the sidewalk has been washed out. The worst section is near 11th Ave. where a portion of the sidewalk has collapsed and could threaten the road, according to Mills.
“What particularly the concern is the upland soil material beneath that sidewalk has migrated through some of the leaky joints through that seawall and going out into the Bay,” he said. “So that soil material that stabilizes that sidewalk is now gone and that’s where you see where the sidewalk has collapsed.”
Resident Marty Nora, 71, said he often walks along Pass-a-Grille Way and has noticed the seawall deteriorating over the past few months.
“You’re starting to notice more and more,” he said. “It appears to be getting worse and we're worried about if this starts to deteriorate more, what's going to happen to the roads here and the housing across the street?”
A geoengineering contractor was performing a ground penetrating radar inspection along the seawall on Tuesday to look for new anomalies.
“The GPR inspection will provide information about the integrity of the ground behind the seawall and allow us to properly plan for the completion of the seawall repair work,” said Mills. “The City is drafting a design-build request for proposal.”
The other critical infrastructure project is repairing the Gulf Way Roadway and beach wall. It’s expected to cost an additional $2.2 million to repair the Gulf Way from 1st Ave. to 20th Ave. Mills said the city has spent nearly $40,000 so far on emergency repairs.
“That’s some of the asphalt patchwork you can see in the intersections that were severely damaged,” he said. “We did have a resurfacing project scheduled for Gulf Way in our capital improvement program and the design for that project is completed.”
Commissioner Joe Moholland, whose district is in Pass-a-Grille, pressed Mills about the beach wall being repaired before hurricane season because it protects the sand dunes. Mills said the best case scenario was that it could be completed by June or July.
“I think we need to explore some temporary measures to see what options we have ahead of next storm season,” he said. “if that construction wouldn't be completed by then.”
Mills said the seawall will take longer to repair than the beach wall. The city is drafting a design-build request for proposal. On March 11, FEMA will inspect both projects to possibly help with funding.
