Past QUENTIN ROUX, Staff WriterJune 30, 2004

Deteriorating sea walls accept go an all-too-real problem for Marco Island waterfront dwellers.

The isle has about 200 miles of manmade canals, constructed during The Deltona Corp.'southward pioneering efforts in the mid-'60s.

That era saw what would be regarded as one of the biggest globe-moving exercises in North American history. For owners with the now-aging walls, the choice is ongoing maintenance or ultimate replacement at a price of near $250 per linear pes.

Until now, maintenance options accept been largely confined to the "tieback" method, which involves excavation, trenching and a physical pour that is time-consuming and tin exist disruptive for owners.

But Islander Jim Timmerman believes he has patented the perfect culling to traditional tie-dorsum maintenance.

He has developed a technique he calls the Dynamic Seawall Maintenance Organisation, using knowledge he says has been around for
thousands of years.

"Information technology's basically one or more giant screws," Timmerman said, "inserted hydraulically from the canal side of the wall, and which tin be installed above or below the h2o line."

The screws are sixteen anxiety long, counterbalance well-nigh 25 pounds each, and the shafts are typically 1 inch in diameter. At preset intervals, curved helixes "burrow" the tie-backs into the soil at the rate of about 3 inches per revolution.

Timmerman described the system as "dynamic" as opposed to static existing methods, in that the Dynamic Seawall Maintenance System tin be adjusted on an equally-needed basis.

"The other systems are known as 'expressionless man' support systems, and only after time would someone know if their ocean wall is failing," Timmerman said.

He said his system is unobtrusive, cost competitive and, in his own case, already successful. With the help of local engineer Martin Pinckney and marine structure practiced Greg Isle of man, Timmerman recently installed the arrangement on his own Perrine Court body of water wall, and is due to start his beginning paying job in the near future.

Timmerman's own installation was pursuant to city permitting, and Mann — of Blue Marlin Marine Construction — is the first contractor licensed to install the organisation.

Mann is more than upbeat near the possibilities of Timmerman's invention, which was patented with the assist of Maryland-based patent attorney Robert Epstein.

"I see it spreading like wildfire," Isle of mann said. "Y'all don't have to tear up gardens, or deal with pools built nearly body of water walls. Information technology's done from the water side, and there's no excavating."

Mann estimated installations for an average fourscore-foot wall volition take most a solar day compared to virtually 5 days for the conventional dead-man method.

Costs run slightly higher, at effectually $500 per tie-back, merely the shorter installation time and not having to tear upward yards, pools or docks easily negates those extra costs, he said.

Pinckney, a professional person engineer and co-operative director of American Engineering science Consultants Inc., said the company assisted Timmerman on the airplane pilot work, and would be available in the future for engineering services for Dynamic Seawall Maintenance System projects.

American Engineering also provides civil engineering, structural and surveying services for housing construction, septic systems and bounding main walls.

Timmerman, a former merchant marine captain, said his innovative idea came about considering of the ongoing bounding main wall maintenance at his ain dwelling house.

He devised the screw "earth anchor" thought from a salvage job about three years ago when he winched a grounded and damaged yacht sideways to be able to apply a patch to a hole caused by the keel pushing through.

He did information technology with rough calculations, an earth ballast and winching the boat over past using the halyard from the mast.

Timmerman said other applications for his system include full wall failure.

"In these cases, it tin exist used to shore up adjacent good walls so that repairs tin be fabricated on the failed area," he said.

The existing shoring method is to drive pilings downwardly side by side to the good wall, Timmerman said, which can cause wall portions farther down to neglect in a domino event.

As for the potential of the new system, Timmerman believes the sky's the limit.

"Information technology's a potential worldwide market," he said, "anywhere in that location's business concern for wall maintenance … separating globe from water."

Timmerman, who is in partnership with longtime colleague Peter Crockett, has called the new company Maritime Professional Services Incorporated.

Timmerman, who is married and has one child, also runs Wholesale Communication Services on the isle. It provides cable services to residential customers on Marco Island through Marco Island Cable.