by Alan Ritchie
Work has continued on the Wiggins Pass dredge and the dredging activity is expected to wrap up in early July after having moved over 100,000 of beach-quality sand to areas just off shore at both Barefoot Beach and Delnor-Wiggins State Park. This project, funded by Collier County, has the dual benefit of improving the quality of the beaches and improving the safety and navigability of Wiggins Pass.
It is estimated that there are over 1800 boat docks inside Wiggins Pass. This includes the estuarial waters to the north of Wiggins Pass up to Little Hickory Bay, the waters of the Cocohatchee River and the estuarial waters south of the pass down into Vanderbilt Lagoon.
The dredge project has straightened the navigation channel from the mouth of the Cocohatchee River to the Wiggins Pass light. It has also eliminated the shoaling that has built up at the intersection of the southbound channel toward Water Turkey Bay.
As you can see from the aerial photo taken on May 22nd, at that time the dredge was finishing up in the channel intersection and would be moving west toward the Gulf.
It is expected that the last phase of the dredge project would remove the small area of sand off Barefoot Beach just inside the mouth of the river and proceed west toward the Wiggins Pass light making the channel wider. Once the dredge is completed, the County will replace the channel markers which will mark the best water for navigating the pass. This activity is expected to be completed in July. As you can clearly see from this photo, the old channel has been closed off to increase the water flow from the river to the new channel. Safe boating!