By Margie Plunkett The county started reef construction off the Ocean Ridge coast this summer, required to restore the natural reef covered by beach renourishment. The mitigation reef, within an area of about 16 acres, will “get covered in critters” — attract fish — and should make great snorkeling, according to environmental analyst Janet Phipps of Palm Beach County Environmental Resource Management. “It provides a lot of nursery for juvenile fish coming out of the estuary at Lake Worth Lagoon. It’ll be covered with clouds of juvenile fish; they settle down and don’t get et,” Phipps said. “It’s a tremendous habitat.” Without the closer reef, the young fish head further out, a journey that reduces the likelihood of survival. About 10,000 tons of limestone boulders are being placed for the reef just south of South Lake Worth Inlet. The reef is constructed of about 62 pods that measure 20 feet by 40 feet and are space 30 feet apart. Engineers recommended the design and spacing of the reef to minimize drift and sand movement, Phipps said. “By creating it in pods, you have more edge — like the edge of the forest. It creates more diversity.” Work on the Ocean Ridge reef started in July — earlier than planned, after Mother Nature brought a halt to another county project off Singer Island. The county had to stop construction there to re-permit the work after too much sand covered half the planned reef area, Phipps said. The Ocean Ridge project isn’t expected to be finished until next year. The construction has to be done in the flat seas season, which runs May through September, to allow the barge that places the rock to work in the shallow waters without getting damaged, Phipps said. Once the construction is done, mooring buoys will be placed on the outside of the reef to delineate the area that’s off limits to boats, according to Phipps. Not far from the reef, the county continues its $7 million project to reconstruct the South Lake Worth Inlet sand transfer plant, and has built a temporary bridge to Bird Island and started the new sea wall. Concrete was poured for the sand transfer plant foundation, walls and, most recently, the roof. Once it cures, the forms will be removed and electrical work will begin, according to Tracy Logue, an ERM coastal geologist, who said completion was scheduled in February or March 2011. “We’re a little behind — by a few weeks,” Logue said. “We wanted to be done by the end of September to take advantage of the calm seas in the summer.”
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