Barge is no longer beached, but limestone rocks remain
DEERFIELD BEACH – Beachgoers can once again walk the shore in Deerfield Beach without navigating around a barge that has been stuck there for the better part of a month. But they’ll still have to watch out for two-ton limestone rocks and a crane.
Crews removed the barge Sunday but left behind the boulders it was towing for an artificial reef project offshore, which were dumped in the sand. It’s unclear how long they will stay there.
The barge and a tugboat were set to create a reef that would mark Deerfield Beach from the air and highlight the city as a snorkeling destination. On Sept. 18, a rough ocean current, partially caused by Hurricane Humberto in the Atlantic Ocean, beached the barge on the sand.
Since then, the city has been embroiled in a conflict with the project’s contractor, Pac Comm Inc. (PAC) of Miami.
PAC’s CEO, Manny Pacin, told the South Florida Sun Sentinel he purposely beached the barge for safety reasons because of rough ocean conditions. Pacin feared his captain might lose control over the vessel and risk the barge full of rocks toppling into
the city’s pier, he said. And most important, he feared his men risking their lives, he said.
“I wasn’t going to compromise my men’s life,” Pacin said. “It’s my responsibility to keep them safe.”
The city indicated it was up to PAC to remove the barge and tugboat under the supervision of the U.S. Coast Guard. The company moved the tugboat on Friday, Sept. 27, but failed to move the barge.
Instead, crews started offloading the limestone boulders onto the sand, without city approval.
The city said in a statement that it was “dissatisfied” with PAC’s performance.
In letters sent to the contractor, city manager David Santucci wrote about the city’s continued frustration with the contractor, citing safety concerns for the public. On at least two occasions, city employees had to shoo away children who were playing on the barge and at risk of hurting themselves.
The city gave PAC more than two weeks to fix the problem, which was “significantly more time” than necessary, the letters say.
“Contractor has squandered every opportunity to safely remove the Barge. The City is not somehow required to waste further time on the unlikely chance that Contractor will now remove the Barge,” Santucci wrote in a letter dated Oct. 9.
The city eventually terminated the contract with PAC and said the company could be fined up to $15,000 per violation per day, city records show. PAC was fined by the U.S. Coast Guard, and the city will hold PAC responsible for any fines levied against the city as a result of PAC’s performance, city spokeswoman Rebecca Stewart Medina said.
Now that PAC removed the barge, the city still demands that the company remove its remaining equipment, including the limestone rocks.
The reef was to consist of three limestone rock clusters spelling out “DFB,” creating an eye-catching underwater image visible to travelers flying into South Florida. The clusters were set to be placed in 6 to 10 feet of water in a stateapproved location just south of the main beach parking lot.
The contractor was able to plant 26 of about 400 boulders before the tug and barge got stuck. The $355,000 project has been delayed until further notice, and officials aren’t sure yet whether the installation will have to be restarted, Stewart said.
The project was scheduled to take six weeks. Had everything gone according to plan, it would be done about two weeks from now.
Instead, it’s shaping up to be the city’s second failed artificial reef project in four years.
In 2015, a 150-foot barge flipped over and landed on top of the concrete sculptures that were set to be sunk for the Rapa Nui project. The project was to consist of Easter Island-style sculptures of gods and goddess that would have become an underwater art installation and one-of-a-kind dive site, paid for with a $500,000 donation from a Boca Raton philanthropist. The overturned boat is still on the site, in about 50 feet of water near the Deerfield Beach International Fishing Pier.
A team of volunteers tried to salvage the project, righting at least two of the heads back in 2016. That barge was already sinking deeper into the sand on the ocean floor. Divers marked the dive site and made a trail to the Deerfield Beach Mountain, a nearby artificial reef made up of piles of giant limestone boulders that the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission funded a few months after the mishap.