Major Construction Equipment at Eastern Lake Beach

**justhavinfun** · 04-05-2011, 12:51 PM

Just looked out at the beach and there is a huge dumptruck, bucket loaders and other heavy equipment. Does anyone know what in the wide wide world of sports is going on?

**kurt** · 04-05-2011, 01:59 PM

Dune lake berms installed for oil protection are being removed. All work is supposed to be finished by the end of the month.

You can watch them on the BeachCam at Walton Dunes at the moment:
Seagrove BeachCam at Walton Dunes Access | SoWal.com - Guide For The Beaches Of South Walton & Scenic 30A

**Douglas the Intrepid** · 04-05-2011, 02:01 PM

The berms on eastern lake have been removed for months now. Are they just using it as a staging area?

**ASH** · 04-05-2011, 05:08 PM

Likely. there are only certain locations that give them access for the equipment.

**SWGB** · 04-05-2011, 09:00 PM

Originally Posted by ASH

Likely. there are only certain locations that give them access for the equipment.

Agreed, that was one of the major staging areas when they put them in.

**kurt** · 04-06-2011, 06:50 AM

Too bad they couldn't use the sand to augment dunes as originally proposed.

**justhavinfun** · 04-06-2011, 10:10 AM

Originally Posted by kurt

Too bad they couldn't use the sand to augment dunes as originally proposed.

Or better yet.. Use the equipment to remove all the sand from the mouth of Eastern Lake that has restricted the flow of salt water and was placed there years ago!!

**SWGB** · 04-06-2011, 12:23 PM

Originally Posted by justhavinfun

Or better yet.. Use the equipment to remove all the sand from the mouth of Eastern Lake that has restricted the flow of salt water and was placed there years ago!!

**easton714** · 04-12-2011, 07:06 AM

First post here...just got back from my first trip to the area just a couple days ago and had posted the following on TripAdvisor before before pointed here:

Major construction equipment on beach at Eastern Lake... - Seagrove Beach Forum - TripAdvisor

Granted, I don't know much about the area but I have a hard time believing they were simply removing man-made berms. It sure didn't look like that.

It was a massive operating and nobody, including one of the truck operators, seemed to know what was going on. Several homeowners we met in our area were furious. One seemed so angered by the possibility that someone (controversial I gather) who owns generally unbuildable lots on the beach was starting to build that he excused himself to run in and make a phone call.

Perhaps this is naive but, if it was something as simple as removing man-made berms, it seems like an odd time to do it. They basically shut down a huge stretch of beach in the middle of one of the busiest Spring Break weeks of the year. Even if you tried to deal with diesel smell and the sight of the gigantic trucks, eventually the noise essentially evacuated the beach.

It was sad.

**Lake View Too** · 04-12-2011, 07:35 AM

The protective berm was actually removed many months ago. While I didn't witness most of this current operation, it appears that they were only attempting to remove the remaining sand that was deposited during the berm installation. In others words, restoring it to the condition it was in before the oil spill crisis. It may have been disputive for one day, but all is good now.

**easton714** · 04-12-2011, 07:45 AM

Okay...So where did they take the sand? Those dump trucks of sand turned the beach to the East into a highway for a whole day.

**Douglas the Intrepid** · 04-12-2011, 07:49 AM

I was at the beach at the outflow this last sunday and it has indeed been completely restored to pre-berm days. Was a gorgeous beach day too!

Perhaps the truck drivers were weary of having to explain in detail to tourists what they were doing. I don't blame them.

**kurt** · 04-12-2011, 07:56 AM

Originally Posted by easton714

First post here...just got back from my first trip to the area just a couple days ago and had posted the following on TripAdvisor before before pointed here:

Major construction equipment on beach at Eastern Lake... - Seagrove Beach Forum - TripAdvisor

Granted, I don't know much about the area but I have a hard time believing they were simply removing man-made berms. It sure didn't look like that.

It was a massive operating and nobody, including one of the truck operators, seemed to know what was going on. Several homeowners we met in our area were furious. One seemed so angered by the possibility that someone (controversial I gather) who owns generally unbuildable lots on the beach was starting to build that he excused himself to run in and make a phone call.

Perhaps this is naive but, if it was something as simple as removing man-made berms, it seems like an odd time to do it. They basically shut down a huge stretch of beach in the middle of one of the busiest Spring Break weeks of the year. Even if you tried to deal with diesel smell and the sight of the gigantic trucks, eventually the noise essentially evacuated the beach.

It was sad.

There is lots of heavy equipment on the beaches all over SoWal right now. They waited as long as they could to keep protection from oil (thank goodness we never needed it). Now the work has to be finished by the start of turtle nesting season May first. Which means they will be through well before the start of summer season.

The controversy at Eastern Lake is ongoing due to a homeowner who previously added sand to his gulf front lot bordering the outflow to build dunes up and apparently restricted the natural flow.

**easton714** · 04-12-2011, 09:18 AM

Originally Posted by Douglas the Intrepid

I was at the beach at the outflow this last sunday and it has indeed been completely restored to pre-berm days. Was a gorgeous beach day too!

Perhaps the truck drivers were weary of having to explain in detail to tourists what they were doing. I don't blame them.

Hopefully I am misreading your tone but there were few tourists around once they cranked up the diesels. The beach was nearly empty for more than one full day of Spring Break.

Like I said, it was sad.

I was the only one who walked through the yellow tape to try to politely make conversation while they were clearly on break. I took personal interest because of my relationship with environmental issues in my usual vacation destination. If it was business as usual, I guess I should take that into consideration.

I'm glad you are happy about it but it was annoying as hell.

**SWGB** · 04-12-2011, 12:38 PM

Originally Posted by kurt

There is lots of heavy equipment on the beaches all over SoWal right now. They waited as long as they could to keep protection from oil (thank goodness we never needed it). Now the work has to be finished by the start of turtle nesting season May first. Which means they will be through well before the start of summer season.

The controversy at Eastern Lake is ongoing due to a homeowner who previously added sand to his gulf front lot bordering the outflow to build dunes up and apparently restricted the natural flow.

He didn't restrict anything. The natural flow, from historical pictures, shows that Eastern Lake prefers to meander down the beach toward Seaside before meeting up. Some of the current owners believe it should follow a mathematical principle of the shortest point between two distances.

**SWGB** · 04-12-2011, 12:39 PM

Originally Posted by Lake View Too

The protective berm was actually removed many months ago. While I didn't witness most of this current operation, it appears that they were only attempting to remove the remaining sand that was deposited during the berm installation. In others words, restoring it to the condition it was in before the oil spill crisis. It may have been disputive for one day, but all is good now.

It was removed from Eastern Lake and Western Lake to avoid a blowout due to those lakes sizes and a large amount of rain. The remaining lakes didn't get removed. Those remaining lakes are generally only accessible from Eastern Lake and Western Lake.