Lee County put shovels in the ground on the Fort Myers Beach Pier this morning, and the figure the county attaches to the whole job is now 14.4 million dollars

Lee County broke ground on the replacement Fort Myers Beach Pier at 10 this morning, in Crescent Beach Family Park at 1100 Estero Boulevard, almost four years after Hurricane Ian destroyed the pier in September 2022.

WINK News reported the ceremony held Friday morning at the park, and Gulf Coast News and Weather carried it as the reconstruction officially beginning. Lee County had announced the date a week ahead, on August 14, with brief remarks scheduled from county commissioners, other officials and county staff.

The figure the county now attaches to the job is 14.4 million dollars. Its own release puts that in a parenthesis that matters: the number covers design and construction together, funded through FEMA Public Assistance, Tourist Development Taxes and RESTORE Act grants.

That is a larger number than the one this desk carried on August 17, which was 11.7 million, and the difference is worth being exact about because it is easily read as a cost overrun. It is not reported as one here. The 11.7 million figure was the construction contract. The 14.4 million figure is design and construction. The gap of about 2.7 million is what separates the two on the county's own published numbers. No agency has announced a price increase or a change in scope, and none is claimed.

The FEMA share confirmed so far remains the 5.5 million dollar Public Assistance award to Lee County announced on July 20. The county has published no breakdown of how the balance splits between tourist tax and RESTORE Act money.

On the structure itself, Lee County's own parks page states that the rebuilt pier will extend 1,000 feet in length and 12 feet in width, longer and wider than the previous structure, and that the renderings published there represent 100 percent design completion, with the layout and overall design finalized. The county's release puts the same dimensions as more than 70 percent longer and 50 percent wider than the pier Ian took.

The specification the county published is reinforced concrete piles, a concrete deck, aluminum railings, an entry gate and three shade structures. WINK News adds that the deck sits raised about two feet higher than the original.

Completion is given as late summer 2027, weather and unforeseen circumstances permitting. The county parks page words the same date slightly differently, as summer 2027, and describes the project as currently in construction.

There is one wrinkle in how the county describes the money, and it is reported here rather than smoothed over. The parks page says the project is funded through FEMA's Disaster Relief Fund, naming one source. The news release names three. Both are Lee County. This item follows the three-source version, which is the more specific and the more recent, and which reconciles with the FEMA award already on the record.

For anyone who travelled to the ceremony, LeeTran waived the regular 75 cent each-way fare on the Beach Trolley, Route 490, between 8 and 11 this morning. That applied to the ceremony window only.

Little else is established. No speaker is named in the reporting available and no quotation from the ceremony is on the public record this desk could reach. No contractor is named in any of the county material or the outlet coverage read for this item.