Lake Panasoffkee/Coleman’s Landing Pilot Dredging Project

Sumter County, Florida

Project Description/Services

One of Sumter County’s largest lakes, Lake Panasoffkee, had become largely unusable because of thick deposits of sediments along the Lake’s eastern shore line. Madrid Engineering Group, Inc. was an integral part of this test project for dredging the rest of the Lake, which involved the dredging of a 300-foot wide channel for boat access to the Lake.

Because Lake Panasoffkee is an “Outstanding Florida Water”, the permit included the collection of extensive geotechnical and environmental data specific to the lake’s sediment, water quality and nearby upland areas to support the pilot-dredging program.

MEG provided the geotechnical investigation of the sediment and upland disposal areas, and the preliminary design of the disposal area and return water system. Services provided on this project included the collection of sediment samples using a piston tube sampler. The sediment samples were tested for a variety of geotechnical parameters. Soil testing of a nearby upland area was also completed to design the spoil containment area. This phase of the project is very important because all future dredging activities on the lake will be based on the pilot dredging engineering design. Dredging of the lake is now underway (Step 2).