The Project Wide Advisory Committee will consider abandoning its pursuit of a Federal Emergency Management Agency grant to help pay for the sloughing problem at the Morse Boulevard bridge.
In the wake of Hurricane Irma, PWAC had decided to purse FEMA money for the sloughing problems at the islands on which the bridge is located. A rock revetment project to address the problem has been estimated to cost $1.7 million and would be paid for by residents south of County Road 466.
New pumps were recently installed at Lake Sumter and the process of lowering the water level has begun. The lake has been high since Hurricane Irma. Lowering the lake level is important to be able to assess the sloughing which has occurred at the site of the bridge.
Assistant District Manager Richard Baier, in a memo to PWAC members, casts doubt on the likelihood of landing the FEMA grant.
“The required National Environmental Policy Act is so regimented that for a project of this size and type the District could not satisfy the federal requirements for a locally preferred alternative by the August 6, 2018 grant submittal deadline,” Baier wrote in the memo.
He said he has consulted with state-level officials about the process.
“We would not make it through the first round of screening,” Baier said.
PWAC meets at 8:30 a.m. Monday at the District Office at Lake Sumter Landing.
