A Road to Fort Pickens?

Photo courtesy of U.S. Geological Survey

New York Times science editor Cornelia Dean today reviews competing proposals of how -- and whether -- to repair the washed-out road to Fort Pickens. Dean, as we noted here, visited the Pensacola area earlier this Fall.

Among the options is the recently-recommended solution of Mobile engineers Volkert & Associates:

In a report on the situation, Volkert & Associates ... recommended building a kind of seawall made of sheets of corrugated metal called sheet piling that would be driven deep into the sand along the seaward edge of the road. If this construction proceeded, it would also be possible to run a sewer line to Fort Pickens to replace the septic system there.

Replies famed coastal morphologist Orrin Pilkey, author of A Celebration of the World's Barrier Islands: "People say, 'What are you going to do, let the road fall in?' The correct answer, of course, is yes."