Naples Mayor John Sorey on NewsMakers 11-11-12.

NAPLES A dispute over how to renourish Collier Countys beaches later this year ratcheted up Friday with a letter of objection from Naples City Hall.

The Naples City Council, through a letter from Mayor John Sorey to county commissioners, called on county leaders to toss out sand haulers proposals to truck sand to the beach and rebid the beach renourishment project for dredging companies only.

Hauling the sand from an inland pit in Immokalee to beaches in central Naples, Park Shore and Vanderbilt Beach would clog city and county roads with 23,000 truck trips, damaging roads and causing traffic tie-ups, Sorey writes in his letter.

Periodic beach renourishment is essential, but it must be accomplished in ways that will least disrupt the Collier County community, Sorey wrote.

Collier County staff received beach project bids late last month, but only truck haulers submitted proposals. A dredging company said the bid documents were too complex for dredgers, who pump sand to the beach from offshore, to be able to make an accurate bid.

The county opened the bidding to both sand haulers and dredgers and asked for bids to be made on various-sized beach projects in an attempt to save tourist tax money that pays for the project.

County purchasing agents were unable to declare a low bidder at the deadline for submitting bids because of the way the truck haulers responded to the bids.

The bids have been under review to come up with a cost, but project managers have hinted that the bids might have to be thrown out.

Sorey wrote that past truck-haul projects, even though they amounted to a few hundred truck trips, still were disruptive: lines of up to 10 trucks blocked traffic, trucks strayed from prescribed routes, police officers needed to direct traffic and trucks were noisy and spewed exhaust.

Read more:

Naples leaders urge Collier commissioners to reject sand-hauling to beaches