UF Engineering Students Get Welcome, Sharp Questions at Marina Workshop

The needs of Cedar Key`s marina provided Dr. Raf Crowley`s graduate engineering students a topic for his Coastal Structures course`s final project, and on Thursday night, April 26, at Cedar Key`s Community Center, the city gave the University of Florida students a reception, and the students gave Cedar Key suggestions for improving marina operations.

In the course of this semester`s project, the students made site visits to Cedar Key and met with city officials and staff. They were given data regarding the last (2004) dredging of the marina and minutes of prior public hearings. For the course`s final project, the students were divided into two teams to formulate and present recommendations.

Before the student presentations Thursday evening, City Commissioner Scott Dennison and Dr. Crowley emphasized to the some 40 attendees that the students had been encouraged to "think outside the box" and urged the public to listen with open minds. While the students` analyses were based on solid engineering principles, proposed solutions were suggestions only.

The students` suggestions ranged from visitor amenities and design niceties to dollars-and-cents recommendations that Cedar Key increase slip rental fees and hire a dock master. The two teams recommended quite different slip configurations within the inner marina - but both teams agreed that the solution to silt build-up was not to widen the culvert.

The location of Cedar Key`s marina with respect to the Suwannee River and the fine quality of the silt that accumulates here are givens. By both UF teams` analyses, the best way to mitigate silt build up in the marina is to harness the effect of slipstream, or prop wash, provided by boats using the marina.

The engineering students worked without the benefit of a geotechnical survey of the marina, which is necessary to pinpoint the nature of the silt. In the question-and-answer session following, UF/IFAS Shellfish Aquaculture Extension Program`s Leslie Sturmer suggested the City Commission ask the University of Florida`s water science department to undertake such a study.

Printed copies of the two student teams` reports have been retained by the city.