TARPON SPRINGS — City officials say the Craig Park seawall will be substantially complete by early December, refuting a commissioner’s claim that the work does not match the approved plans and might not be finished in time for Epiphany.
Commissioner Michael Eisner raised the concerns at an Aug. 3 commission meeting, telling colleagues the work along Spring Bayou “does not match what commissioners were told to expect” and that the information given to the board “misrepresented” what has been built.
The approved project calls for a new seawall running from the Craig Park boat ramp to the observation deck on the south side of the bayou, with tiebacks and anchors, a reinforced concrete cap and a wall roughly 2 feet higher than the old one. The sidewalk and grade immediately behind the wall are to be raised to match.
“None of this has been done on the west wall,” Eisner said. Plans also call for raising the seawall and sidewalk around the park’s perimeter to guard against tidal flooding, he said. “Again, that has not been done.”
Eisner also questioned the grassy berm on the west side of the park, which he said rises less than 2 feet above grade. “The new elevation should not be lower than the old one but it is,” he said.
His bigger worry, he told fellow commissioners, is that the job may not be done by Epiphany on Jan. 6, when international attention turns to Spring Bayou for the cross dive.
In written answers to questions from the Beacons, prepared with input from City Manager Mark LeCouris, the city said the contractor expects to reach substantial completion by early December, “in time for the Epiphany celebration.”
The project is split into two sections: an 800-foot western stretch from the boat ramp to the Beekman parking lot, and a 1,200-foot eastern stretch from that lot to the observation deck.
In the western section, the city said, the original seawall was sound apart from about 20 linear feet of damaged panel, and the work called for replacing the damaged concrete cap rather than the wall itself. Surveyed elevations show the new cap averages about 2 inches higher than the old one.
Tidal protection there comes from the berm behind the wall, built to an elevation of 5.8 feet, or about 7.5 feet above mean lower low water — the average of the lower of the two daily low tides at a given spot. The berm system includes drainage, check valves and manatee grates on the outfall pipes, and is designed to hold back a 10-year flood.
The sidewalk in the western section is not being replaced, the city said, because it already sits higher than the seawall there and will be shielded by the berm.
In the eastern section, crews are installing a new seawall and a new sidewalk at an elevation of 5 feet — about 2 to 3 feet higher than the existing cap and walkway — along with drainage and check valves.
Cap work in the western section is finished and the berm is about 90% complete, city staff said. The rest of the berm work is waiting on delivery of stormwater inlet structures; the pipes are already in. Seawall panel installation in the eastern section started at the observation deck and is about 15% complete, with no materials on back order.
A $2 million federal grant covers a significant share of the cost. It applies only to the waterfront from the boat ramp to and including the observation deck. The rest of the Spring Bayou waterfront, on the north side, is to be rebuilt in a later second phase.