JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – St. Johns County beach residents and visitors will begin seeing construction equipment and dredging pipe on St. Augustine Beach around December 15 as efforts to restore critically eroded beaches gets underway.
The contractor will place approximately 800,000 cubic yards of sand from the navigation channel and ebb shoal on the eroded beach. This project will be constructed from 1,300 feet north of the southern limits of Anastasia State Park to 9th Street in St. Augustine Beach.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ contractor, Marinex Construction, Inc., will begin dredging December 15 through January 10 from Anastasia Park to Pope Road. Work will progress from Pope Road to the St. Augustine Beach pier from mid-January to early February; followed by sand placement from the pier to 15th to 9th Streets between March and April. Project completion is set for April (weather pending). Pope Road will be used as an equipment staging area and will remain closed for the duration of the project.
The beach will remain open to residents and visitors outside the work areas and activities will be temporarily suspended for the New Year’s Eve festivities along the beach. The contractor expects to temporarily close at least 1,200 feet of the beach at a time during the renourishment project. Public access over the dredging pipes will occur roughly over 200 to 300 feet. Swimmers and surfers are strongly encouraged to avoid the construction area to avoid injury.
The Corps asks the public to use caution around construction areas and to be patient with temporary construction noise as the project progresses. Residents living close to the beach and near the active construction will likely hear heavy equipment and backup alarms.
The purpose of this project is to mitigate for down-drift shoreline impacts caused by the federal navigation channel at St. Augustine Inlet, and provide storm damage reduction for upland development. The goal of engineered shore projects is to reduce risk and promote coastal resilience.
The federal project, led by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, is in partnership with St. Johns County. The cost share is 80.5% federal and 19.5% non-federal.
Project updates and progress maps will be available at www.saj.usace.army.mil/StAugustineBeach and our social media pages – facebook.com/JacksonvilleDistrict and twitter.com/JaxStrong. An updated progress map will be provided routinely to keep the public up to date on impacted areas.
**Note: Future news releases will announce projected dates of beach closures for the duration of the project.
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