Fort Pierce Harbor FL (O&M)

May 2025

FACT SHEET

Fort Pierce Harbor, FL 
Operations & Maintenance (O&M)
Congressional District: 21

1. DESCRIPTION

Ft. Pierce Inlet is in St. Lucie County on the southeast coast of Florida connecting the Atlantic Ocean with the Indian River lagoon. The Federal channel has three components. A 1.8-mile entrance channel that passes through the 850-foot-wide Ft Pierce Inlet and connects to a 1.3-mile interior channel that connects to a 44-acre turning basin which connections to the Atlantic Intracoastal waterway.  The existing entrance channel has two segments from the Atlantic Ocean is 5,700 feet long and 400 feet wide segment then the channel width changes from 400 feet to 250 feet wide channel at 3,675 feet.  The entire length is -30 feet referencing Mean Lower Low Water (MLLW).  The interior channel is 250 feet wide and approximately 1.3 miles in length and is maintained at -28 feet MLLW that connects to a turning basin capable of accommodating 1,100-foot vessels.

2. FUNDING

a. Regular Civil Works Funds:

b. P.L. 117-43: Disaster Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act:

3. SPONSOR

4. STATUS

The last navigation improvements at Fort Pierce were completed in August 1996 that was authorized by the 1988 Water Resource Development Act.

In 2014, Two separate maintenance contracts were issued where one contract removed 64,100 cubic yards of beach quality material was placed onto shoreline immediately south of the Ft. Pierce Inlet.  In another contract, non-beach quality material from the turning basing was dredged where 141,494 cubic yards into an approved Ocean Dredge Material Disposal Site (ODMDS).  

The project was supposed to be awarded in Fiscal Year 2025 (FY25), but that didn’t occur.  On October 31, 2025, bid opening occurred with the project that was consolidated with Fort Pierce Shore Protection Project (SPP) and didn’t receive any bids for the consolidated project.  The scheduled was moved to award the project in Quarter 1 of Fiscal Year 2026.  Project is currently under design phase with expectation the project will be physically completed by 30 May 26.

Anticipated project work consists of maintenance dredging the Fort Pierce Harbor identified isolated shoals with beach quality material to be placed in a designated beach disposal area located immediately south of Fort Pierce Inlet. Non-beach quality material to be transported to and placed in the Fort Pierce Ocean Dredged Material Disposal Site (ODMDS). Offloading the beach fill will be done inside the South Jetty of Fort Pierce Inlet.  Work also includes turbidity monitoring, endangered species monitoring, sea turtle non-capture trawl sweeping, and related incidental items.