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Brawn before beauty
By JON WILSON, Times Staff Writer
City officials predict November will write a finish to a huge sea wall replacement project that has closed sections of the scenic northeast St. Petersburg road situated between 30th and 18th avenues NE. It is part of a $5.35-million improvement job, all paid by the penny sales tax. The sea wall is among the city's 10 most expensive projects to use the voter-approved levy, said city engineer Mike Connors. Several phases are finished: -- Most of Coffee Pot north of 22nd Avenue NE. -- Replacement of 60 feet of broken wall in the Vinoy Basin behind the Museum of History. -- Installation of new capstones on 1,400 feet of wall fronting Tampa Bay north of the Vinoy Basin entrance. The Coffee Pot work has taken the highest profile and affected the most people. Since the work started in earnest early this year, motorists, cyclists and pedestrians have had to find alternate routes. The job has uprooted sidewalks, favored by runners and walkers. And it has been a distraction to residents, accustomed to a placid ambiance in the neighborhood of elegant houses along Coffee Pot Bayou. The project, which is replacing old, leaky sea walls, is about a month and a half behind schedule, Connors said. Dealing with about two dozen private docks and trying to float work barges in periodic shallow water have slowed contractor Inter-Bay Marine, Connors said. Between 30th Avenue NE and 23rd Avenue NE, work is complete. Roads and sidewalks are still closed at 23rd, where work continues. South of the Snell Isle Bridge at 21st Avenue NE, work also is going on. Sidewalks are blocked and about 200 yards of boulevard traffic is reduced to one lane northbound during weekday working hours. Motorists using the bridge must detour into the Old Northeast for a few blocks. During the sea wall work, drainage pipes into the bayou are being enlarged, Connors said. They carry stormwater from the Fourth Street N and Crescent Lake areas, he said. Sometimes machinery noise rattles through the neighborhood. On Tuesday, though, a water pump's low-grade thrumming and a tractor's periodic grumble did not upset Patricia Gassner's five Yorkshire terriers. Gassner lives on Coffee Pot Boulevard just south of 23rd. She said her biggest problem with the project has been motorists who ignore the "local traffic only" signs. The workers, she said, "are clipping along. All in all, I think they're doing pretty well." The project has generated few public gripes, Connors said. "I'm delighted how cooperative our citizens and property owners have been," he said. Much of the reason is that people know the work is for a good cause: keeping the land from washing away. Buckling sidewalks often are the first obvious sign. The new walls, made of steel and concrete, will do a better job of keeping the soil intact, officials say. The old aluminum walls developed problems within a year of their 1978 installation, reports say. Seams between the aluminum sections let tidal action suck out soil. In 1985, officials estimated that cavities lurked beneath 70 to 80 percent of the milelong stretch of Coffee Pot sidewalk between 30th and 18th avenues NE. Hurricane Elena's protracted battering in 1985 made things worse. Repairs in the late 1980s helped, but the aluminum walls didn't hold up. Sun and saltwater took a toll. For the new walls, Inter-Bay Marine is installing sheets of steel. Cement then is poured in front of the sheeting. "We would expect a 50-year lifespan," Connors said. "There's no question that the structural integrity of the wall is much greater than what existed there before." The height remains virtually the same, officials said. Engineering considerations make building a higher wall impractical. Docks, sidewalks and trees that had to be removed will be replaced for free.
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From the Times South Pinellas desks Editorial Letters |
