News

By Jane Smith
    
    The height of the sea wall in Veterans Park will soon be raised to a uniform level and the two docks there rebuilt, after the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency agreed in late June to pay for the work.
    The agency could pay the estimated $643,700 cost during the current budget year from the savings of three items, said Thuy Shutt, assistant director.
    She told the board members that a less costly HVAC system was installed at the Old School Square complex for a $193,700 savings.
    Delray Beach officials also requested the agency remove two items from its current budget: improvements at the Swinton and Atlantic intersection, costing $300,000, and way-finder signs for the parking management program, costing $150,000.  
    Callaway Marine Technologies Inc., of West Palm Beach, was the lowest bidder. It will do the Veterans Park work for $585,178.80 with an additional 10 percent needed for construction engineering inspection services, for a total cost of $643,700.
    The city already paid about $80,000 to the Wantman Group to survey, design and supervise the construction of the sea wall cap and the two docks.
    The public sea wall will be 20 inches high and rid of slopes and other imperfections along its approximately 400-foot length to the Atlantic Avenue bridge. The sea wall height is measured from the average water level in the Intracoastal.
    Then in 25 years, the city can decide whether another 16 inches is needed because of rising sea levels. This can be done with a triangular parapet on top of the current sea wall to bring the height to 3 feet.
    The higher sea walls were recommended in mid-June. The city’s Rising Waters Task Force recommended a height of 5 feet for public and private sea walls along the Intracoastal.
    “What the city is doing is fine for now by designing a base that can hold increased height,” said Andy Katz, a task force member with a science background. “It doesn’t make sense to increase the height in one area and not the length of the waterway.”
    Delray Beach is in the bidding process for the southern portion of the repair work along Marine Way and the city’s marina. That street does not have a sea wall. The work is set to begin next year.
    The two docks at Veterans Park were closed last September because the wood rotted, making them unsafe to use. The replacement docks should be ready by January.
    Separately, Delray Beach is surveying the condition of public and private sea walls along the Intracoastal Waterway. The work is supposed to be finished in August.