- April 26, 2024
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About a mile south of State Road 100, on Seminole Woods Boulevard, you may see a dump truck turning west onto Airport Commerce Center Way. But there’s no airport where it’s heading, and there’s no commerce — only dirt.
The truck will drive another thousand feet, and, after a cul-de-sac of sorts, an unpaved road leads to what could be described as Palm Coast’s best try at the Grand Canyon. It’s about 30 feet deep and covers 25 acres.
The dump truck continues around the rim and down a slope, where it’s loaded up by a Caterpillar hydraulic excavator. From the top of the canyon, the construction vehicles below look like Tonka toy trucks. A pump runs 24 hours per day to prevent flooding in the canyon, which is technically called a borrow pit because dirt is borrowed from it for other purposes. The fill dirt — at $5 per cubic yard — in this particular dump truck load could be used to raise the elevation of a cleared lot so that a single-family home can be built in your neighborhood.
But mostly, the dirt is used by the company that owns it, Cline Construction, for major infrastructure and utility projects. Scott Sowers joined the company as a summer laborer 25 years ago and worked his way up to vice president and, since 2012, president. He listed several Palm Coast landmarks for which the company, founded by Sam Cline, laid pipes and asphalt: Cline four-laned Old Kings Road from State Road 100 to Central Avenue, and it prepared the land and paved the lots where The Home Depot, Lowe’s, Island Walk and Albertson’s (now Publix) were built.
Cline Construction also cleared the land and paved the lot for Perkins restaurant at Palm Coast Parkway and Boulder Rock Drive. When that closed and was demolished, Cline was hired to prepare the lot for Chick-fil-A to built.
The Citation Boulevard paving project (which has been delayed by a wide variety of issues, including the death of a vaccinated supervisor due to COVID-19, as well as supply chain disruptions) is being performed mostly for maintenance: The stormwater pipes are 50 years old and could fail, like the pipes did under Royal Palms Parkway recently, unless they’re replaced.
“People don’t see it — it’s underground — but it takes time to get it right,” Sowers said. “It keeps toilets flushing and water running to your faucets. People take it for granted, but it doesn’t magically happen without projects like this to keep things functioning.”
Construction is sure to continue in the county, which is why Cline is planning to double the future span of its Grand Canyon-like borrow pit, beginning in early 2022. Out west, forestry company Rayonier is also building a new, 26-acre borrow pit. There are about a dozen such pits already in Flagler County — with Cline's the most central and therefore the most affordable, since the biggest cost is hauling.
“Right now, we’re feeling the difficulty of buying materials from out of the county that we don’t have control of. But we have control over the fill dirt.”
SCOTT SOWERS, president of Cline Construction
“Fortunately or unfortunately, construction is still a big part of our economy,” Sowers said. “Right now, we’re feeling the difficulty of buying materials from out of the county that we don’t have control of. But we have control over the fill dirt.”
Local coquina rock was also used to shore up State Road A1A, thanks to borrow pits.
State permits only allow the excavators to dig so deep, and they also eventually hit clay, which isn’t useful for fill dirt. At that point, Sowers said, the borrow pit off Seminole Woods Parkway will have run its course, and Cline will “take out” the berm that forms its southern ridge. That berm is all that separates the pit from the city’s Iriquois Canal, so connecting the two will allow the canal to spread out into a deep, wide section, increasing the city’s stormwater capacity.
That day, when it comes, will benefit the neighborhoods that surround it, making them safer during major storms. And it’s another Cline project that most people will never know ever happened.
