Dredging to unclog Bonita Springs waterways

Andrea Stetson

Special to news-press.com Sep, 20, 2011

Boats heading south can get stuck in shallow channels

Boaters are ready for some relief along three Bonita Springs waterways.

A contract for bidders went out this week for the dredging of the shallow channel between Bonita Beach Road and the Imperial River — Intrepid Waters, and the Hogue and Broadway channels.

“We got stuck three times this week,” said Bonita Springs boater Jack Davies. “It’s really bad.”

The bids will be opened Sept. 28. They will be reviewed and a contractor will be chosen.

Chuck Listowski, executive director of West Coast Inland Navigation District, hopes dredging will begin in November. He said it should

take five months to dredge all three channels.

“We will begin by Bonita Beach Road,” Listowski said. “The whole system is in need of some maintenance.”

While Intrepid Waters and Hogue and Broadway channels are dredged about every five years, the waterway by Bonita Beach Road hasn’t been dredged since the 1950s.  “In the ’50s it was some kind of a flood-oriented dredging to alleviate conditions along the river and allow water to flow freely in the river and not flood properties,” Listowski said.

Listowski said about 7,000 cubic yards of material will be dredged from the channels.
He and other officials would not estimate the cost of the projects, but the most recent dredging of Intrepid Waters and Hogue and Broadway cost $390,000.

“It’s a very difficult area between the bridge at Bonita Beach Road and the mouth of the river,” he said. “We have a lot of people that rent boats right there and they try to go to Estero Bay or points south and they find it difficult right through there. We also have a lot of new boat traffic with the FGCU marine lab there.”

Tibe Larsen, marina manager at Bonita Bay, tells boaters with larger boats to not even try going south through the area.

“Our smaller boats on low tide still have trouble,” Larsen said. “With the dredge, that will help people go south.”

Justin McBride, senior environmental specialist with Lee County Natural Resources, said the county will save money by piggybacking the three projects. He said Intrepid Waters and Hogue and Broadway might have lasted one more year without dredging, but the projects are being done now to save money.

McBride said fewer jobs mean contractors are giving better prices now, too.

“We probably could have waited, but it is not a bad thing to get it done now,” McBride said. “I expect the bids to be lower than in other years. We can get more done with the little money we have.”