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Engineer outlines 3-foot "wave mitigation" walls as option to reduce flood zone in Times Square
Summary
A coastal engineer presented examples and costs for low-profile wave-dissipation walls that could lower mapped flood risk in Fort Myers Beach’s Times Square, and councilmembers asked staff to place the concept on a future council agenda and to return with funding ideas and examples.
Elizabeth Fountain, a professional civil engineer with JR Evans Engineering, described a type of low, coastal “wave mitigation” wall she said can reduce wave heights during extreme surge events and help properties shift from FEMA’s VE zone to an A-type flood zone.
Fountain told the town’s management planning section that the feature is “not 6 or 8 foot high. They’re more like 3 to 3 and a half foot above the grade,” and that the structures have been used on both Florida coasts. She said the walls are designed to withstand 100-year event forces, are sometimes buried with a concrete cap or sheet piles, and can be integrated with pedestrian amenities so “you don't even know it's an armoring wall.”
The council and staff discussed examples Fountain brought from Clearwater Beach, the Hyatt and Wyndham Grand properties, and Bonita Beach condominiums. Fountain said one…
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