Army Corps of Engineers announces park closure

Published March 27, 2015
Mile Point map

Mile Point map

Jacksonville, Fla. – The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Jacksonville District announces the closure of Helen Cooper Floyd Park during the construction of the Mile Point Navigation Project. Located near Mayport, the park will contain construction activity and also be used as an equipment staging area throughout project operations.

The closure is effective Apr. 1 through construction completion in the winter of 2016.  

The confluence of the St. Johns River with the Intracoastal Waterway is known as Mile Point, an area that experiences difficult crosscurrents on the ebb tide. Due to these crosscurrents there is navigational restriction on the ebb tide that affects all vessels that have a transit draft greater than 33 feet inbound and 36 feet outbound, inhibiting the free movement of vessel traffic.

The navigation project combines relocation/reconfiguration of the existing training wall, restoration of Great Marsh Island, and the creation of a flow improvement channel in Chicopit Bay.

Project Details (see attached map)

The Corps of Engineers will construct approximately 4,000 feet of a new west leg training wall, remove approximately 3,300 feet of the westerly end of the existing training wall to elevation -12 feet mean lower low water (MLLW), which is the average height of the lowest tide recorded at a tide station each day during the recording period, construct approximately 2,100 feet of a new east leg training wall, and dredge the confluence area to elevation -12 feet MLLW and the flow improvement channel to elevation -6 feet MLLW, plus one foot allowable over-depth.

All satisfactory stone material recovered from the existing training wall will be reused in the east leg training wall. Materials will be placed and contained in the Great Marsh Island placement area, which is a beneficial use site. Additional work includes clearing and grubbing, marine animal monitoring, bird monitoring, turbidity monitoring, and coordinating with the U.S Coast Guard to allow its crews to remove and reinstall three aid-to-navigation structures.

For more information on the Mile Point Navigation Project, please visit www.saj.usace.army.mil and go to Ports, Jacksonville Harbor Mile Point.


Contact
Susan Jackson
904-232-1630
Susan.J.Jackson@usace.army.mil

Release no. 15-041