Subaqueous pipeline project cost, timeline still unknown

Longboat Key voters approved the town’s proposal to take out a loan to pay for the replacement of a wastewater pipeline in March 2025. More than 16 months later, the total cost of the project is still unknown.

Cost estimates of $30 million and $33 million were cited previously by the town, but those were rough estimates. In the town of Longboat Key’s new five-year capital improvement plan, $42 million was budgeted for the project.

The final price tag will be revealed when the town finalizes the permitting process with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Florida Department of Environmental Protection.

“When you have both of your permits in place and know and understand your means and methods perfectly, you negotiate your GMP, which is your guaranteed maximum price,” said Longboat Key Utilities Manager Jessie Camburn. “Once that guaranteed maximum price is put in place, if things go good or things go bad, that is the price that sets the standard for the whole job.”

Price can fluctuate widely depending on environmental mitigation requirements, Camburn said.

“With the state, especially in U.S. waters, if you do a project, you have to leave it better than when you started the project,” Camburn said.

To do so, the town will place more sand on the trench where the old pipeline sits and plant seagrass atop it.

Image via Longboat Key permit support document

The town is working with Garney Construction to finalize details of the project. Design work is 90% done and is continuously tweaked during the permit application process.

“We’ve sent it to the state with everything that our consultants think is correct. They will observe it and then send an RAI, which is a request for additional information. That information is the way the state requires it and explains this is what we need to do,” Camburn said. “They will take our math for sand, for example, and do their own calculations and try and prove our theory right or wrong. So that’s the stage we are in right now. We have submitted and they’re going to come back with feedback, and then it’s a back and forth. It’s generally a back and forth 10 or 15 times.”

Camburn said he expects the state permit to be issued in the next couple of months and the Army Corps of Engineers permit could be six months out. After that, a price tag and construction timeline will become clear.