City of St. Pete could purchase an AquaFence
FOX 13’s Kailey Tracy explains why leaders in St. Petersburg are weighing a proposal to purchase an AquaFence in hopes of protecting vital infrastructure.
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – During the last hurricane season, the Tampa Bay area saw firsthand how the AquaFence around Tampa General Hospital works.
The nine-foot-tall barrier kept floodwaters out of the hospital even though nearby properties flooded.
Now, the City of St. Petersburg is considering the same type of technology.
An AquaFence FloodWall helped keep floodwaters out of Tampa General Hospital during recent hurricanes.
What we know: St. Pete City Council will vote at its meeting Thursday on whether to purchase a FloodWall prevention barrier system from AquaFence, a company based out of Hoboken, New Jersey.
City staff wrote in a report to council, which was included in the meeting’s agenda, that the AquaFence FloodWall would be used to protect Lift Station 85 near Albert Whitted Airport. It’s one of the city’s largest lift stations.
Lift stations pump the wastewater from properties and move it to a treatment plant. They’re vital to the city’s infrastructure.
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City staff warn, “Failure to procure the AquaFence FloodWall system would expose Lift Station #85 to significant flood risks, potentially leading to operational disruptions, costly repairs, and compromised sewage processing capabilities. The inability to adequately protect this infrastructure could result in critical service interruptions, negatively impacting public health and safety.”
The AquaFence FloodWall can withstand up to 15 feet of storm surge. Tampa General’s $1 million AquaFence was first used in 2021. It’s 1,000 feet long and nine feet high.
“It’s a deployable flood wall system,” Tampa General Hospital’s Vice President of Facilities Dustin Pasteur said.
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“So, it comes flat packed in crates, you know, stacked several panels in a crate and it takes about four guys to set one up and it unfolds into an L-shaped. And actually, the L that you see behind me, the water holds the wall up. So, the weight of the water actually supports the wall, and we bolt it into the ground to keep the wind from blowing it over before the water gets here. But really, it’s the water that supports it,” he said.
By the numbers: St. Pete’s AquaFence FloodWall would be 518 feet long and cost the city $628,000. The panels would be delivered in 20 weather-resistant storage crates. AquaFence employees would also conduct an on-site training session for the lift station maintenance team to make sure they know how to deploy and operate the system.
What’s next: St. Pete’s City Council meeting starts at 1:30 p.m. Thursday.
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