When Red Bull approached the City of St. Petersburg to host a high-profile diving event at the Municipal Marina, the clock was already ticking. Cummins Cederberg, Inc. (Cummins Cederberg) was tasked with making it happen. Engineers and environmental scientists worked in tandem to design and permit a custom dredge hole within the Marina’s North Basin, located within Tampa Bay. With the event scheduled just a few months away, there was no margin for delay in meeting the firm June 5th event start date.

For the first time in the event’s history, the much-anticipated Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series graced Florida’s Gulf Coast, spanning North Straub Park and the adjacent St. Petersburg Marina. A temporary dive platform was constructed along the uplands of the Marina Basin, towering nearly 100-ft above the water below. To achieve adequate water depths for safe use of the platform, dredging of the City-owned submerged lands within the designated dive zone to a depth approximately 5-10 ft below the existing seabed was required. Cummins Cederberg provided the full scope of engineering design and environmental permitting services just a few months prior to the event.

Working against a tight schedule, our team developed conceptual permit drawings using 2023 bathymetric survey data. Upon receipt of updated bathymetric survey data performed as part of ongoing efforts tied to the City’s Cross Bay Ferry project, the drawings were updated. Dredge volume estimates, plan views, and representative cross-sections were prepared in sufficient detail to support dual-track permitting a Statewide Environmental Resource Permit (SWERP) Exemption Verification through the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) and a Department of the Army Permit through the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE).
Environmental due diligence was a key component of the work. The project area had been surveyed for marine resources during the 2025 seagrass growing season, and our permitting approach was structured around a no-impact, no-mitigation scenario — keeping the regulatory path as streamlined and efficient as possible. Dredged material was managed for direct upland disposal at an approved landfill, avoiding the need for a separate material management plan.

This project is a strong example of what Cummins Cederberg delivers when clients require fast, reliable marine engineering in a regulated coastal environment, providing precise technical work, proactive agency coordination, and timely results.