{"id":422041,"date":"2026-10-08T07:44:17","date_gmt":"2026-10-08T07:44:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/422041\/"},"modified":"2026-10-08T07:44:17","modified_gmt":"2026-10-08T07:44:17","slug":"dredging-project-impacting-bowditch-point-beach-gets-underway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/422041\/","title":{"rendered":"Dredging project impacting Bowditch Point Beach gets underway"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Bernie<\/a>FORT MYERS BEACH, Fla. \u2014<\/p>\n

Bowditch Point Beach in Fort Myers Beach will temporarily shrink as crews undertake a nearly $7 million federal dredging project to deepen waters and reinforce the coastline. <\/p>\n

Walt Neveker, a Lee County resident, reflected on his experiences at the beach. <\/p>\n

“We used to go there pretty often. [We’d] just lounge out, cast out and, you know, do some shore fishing, things like that,” Neveker said. <\/p>\n

Crews began dredging on Sunday and plan to remove enough sand to fill 41 Olympic-sized swimming pools. The project is designed to make the channel deeper, allowing larger boats to navigate the waters more easily. <\/p>\n

Some of the dredged material will be relocated offshore between Red Coconut and Lanark Avenue, which Fort Myers Beach officials say will help protect the coastline from future storms. <\/p>\n

“They’re creating a second sandbar out there,” said Chadd Chustz, environmental projects manager. <\/p>\n

While Bowditch Point Beach will shrink during the dredging process, Chustz explained that the sand will naturally return over time. <\/p>\n

“It’ll look how it has in years past \u2014 [only] after it’s had a haircut,” Chustz said. <\/p>\n

Neveker expressed his support for the project, emphasizing its importance for the community. <\/p>\n

“Whatever is going to make Fort Myers Beach stronger, I am 100% for it,” Neveker said. <\/p>\n

Town officials said the project is expected to be completed by mid-November.<\/p>\n

DOWNLOAD\u202fthe free\u202fGulf Coast News app<\/a>\u202ffor your latest news and alerts on breaking news, weather, sports, entertainment, and more on your phone or tablet. And check out the Very Local Gulf Coast app<\/a> to stream news, entertainment and original programming on your TV.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FORT MYERS BEACH, Fla. \u2014 Bowditch Point Beach in Fort Myers Beach will temporarily shrink as crews undertake…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":422042,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[3885,166569,209,211,210,166580,166576,138719,99277,132278,3582,2344,87205,166581,104,166578,129608,166572,28,897,1695,166570,166574,213,356,166575,5204,166571,166577,88117,166573,197,166579,4103,221],"class_list":["post-422041","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cape-coral","tag-beach-erosion","tag-bowditch-point-beach","tag-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral-headlines","tag-cape-coral-news","tag-chadd-chustz","tag-channel-deeper","tag-coastal-storms","tag-coastline","tag-coastline-protection","tag-crew","tag-download","tag-dredging-project","tag-enough-sand","tag-entertainment","tag-environmental-projects","tag-estero-island","tag-federal-dredging","tag-florida","tag-fort-myers","tag-fort-myers-beach","tag-lanark-avenue","tag-larger-boats","tag-late-news","tag-lee-county","tag-mid-november","tag-project","tag-red-coconut","tag-sand-relocation","tag-sandbar","tag-shore-fishing","tag-sport","tag-walt-neveker","tag-water","tag-weather"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422041","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=422041"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422041\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/422042"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=422041"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=422041"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=422041"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}