A few hours before Hurricane Ian made landfall on the Gulf Coast, Naples City Manager Jay Boodheshwar watched shore water flow under a wooden bridge and into the parking lot at a city beachfront park. “So, that was a little scary because I knew that the worst was yet to come,” he said.

“I still vividly remember standing on one of the walkover wooden bridges at Lowdermilk Park with the mayor. We were touring the city. We were on the north end, and this is about three hours before high tide. And I knew when high tide was, and I knew it was going to be a king tide. And I witnessed the dune get breached, and I knew we were in trouble.”

The effect of Ian’s storm surge can still be seen 20 months after the severe weather event. The Naples Pier is still damaged and closed. The city of Naples has reopened 37 of the 40 beach accesses and a small section of the pier, but beach access points are still closed and unsafe to use at the Admiralty Point beach walk, Third Avenue South and 16th Avenue South.

“All of the beach ends and access points will be permanently restored,” Boodheshwar said. “Phase 1 was to make them safe, and Phase 2 will complete the efforts.”

Some residents and visitors don’t understand why it is taking so long to repair the damage.

“That’s one of the things that’s frustrating for the community, and we totally get it,” Boodheshwar said. “Unless you physically see things happening, there’s an assumption that nothing is happening, and of course, that’s not accurate. There’s a lot of effort going on behind the scenes in terms of design and bidding and permitting. This stuff takes a lot of time, and we have to follow the requirements of FEMA [Federal Emergency Management Agency] so we don’t risk reimbursement. I mean, we have millions of dollars at play here, and there are prescribed steps and timelines that we must follow per the federal government to make sure these projects are designed properly, bid properly, permitted properly, and it’s a frustratingly slow process. But it’s moving, and we are so close, relatively speaking here, to awarding a contract in the coming months for the pier, the beach ends and the outfall project. We’re very close, but it’s going to happen. We’re getting there.”

The reconstruction of the historic fishing pier went out for bid March 5 and will close bids June 13. The rebuilding project is estimated to cost more than $20 million.

“Our first goal was to safely and quickly process access to the beach after the storm,” Boodheshwar said. “The permanent work takes time to design and permit. We are nearing the design and permitting of this work and hope to be under construction before the end of the summer.”

The city is working with architects and engineers to redesign and reconstruct the public beach accesses. Upon completion of the design, bids will go out for construction, which will include landscaping, permanent signage, showers, water fountains and hardscape such as lighting, benches, bike racks and walkways.

“There are 40 beach access points and we have a handful of beach ends that were structurally damaged to the point where we can’t have cars there. And we can’t have people accessing the beach at these locations, because we have seawall that has been destroyed, we have asphalt that has been undermined and there are voids underneath the asphalt where we can really have some issues. So, those were the more complicated ones that require permitting,” Boodheshwar said.

“All that’s happening right now. We have consultants on board working, but it takes time. Remember, the entire west coast of Florida suffered similar damage, if not worse, and they’re having to go through the same process with the DEP [Florida Department of Environmental Protection], Army Corps, all of the different regulatory agencies to get their projects reviewed and approved so they can go forward. There’s a work volume issue that those who have to review and approve our projects have to deal with. So, that’s the other reality as well, you know. We have a very large area of western coastal Florida that was impacted by the storm, and they’re going through the same thing as we are.”

The city is in the bidding and permitting phases of the pier project and hopes to award a contract to begin its reconstruction this summer; likewise with the city’s pump stations work and beach outfall project. “We will be finalizing the financing plan in June and hope to award the contract then to commence construction this summer,” Boodheshwar said.

“What I really want to convey to the community is that the city is doing something about these issues that we’re facing relative to resiliency, king tides, flooding, storm surge—but it’s years in the making. We’re working on things that we’ll see incrementally happen over the next several years, but these aren’t quick and easy things to plan, design and fund. It’s going to take a lot of time and effort and money to get these things done.”

This story was published in The Naples Press on May 31.