JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced Jan. 19 that its Jacksonville District will receive a $500,000 congressional allocation under the Fiscal Year 2021 Work Plan for the Army Civil Works to begin a Coastal Storm Risk Management (CSRM) Study of North Ponte Vedra Beach, St. Johns County, Fla.
North Ponte Vedra Beach, home to some 2,000 permanent residents, includes approximately 10 miles of Atlantic coastal shoreline that run south from Duval County toward St. Augustine, Fla. In 2016 Hurricane Matthew caused severe damage along the narrow beach in North Ponte Vedra. The storm surge was sufficient to cause an estimated $100 million of structural damage to approximately 265 homes and eroded an average of 30 feet of beach along the coast. Continued erosion could further endanger residential and commercial properties, and threaten SR-A1A, which serves as the area’s major hurricane evacuation route.
Storm damage was only exacerbated when Hurricane Irma impacted the coast in 2017.
“This study expands and builds upon a long-standing partnership between Jacksonville District and St. Johns County to collaborate for the preservation of the natural treasure of its coastline, which enables and ensures the social and economic basis of life along the Atlantic Coast,” said Jacksonville District Commander, Col. Andrew Kelly.
The county and the district have collaborated on a number of projects in recent years, among them a current Hurricane and Storm Damage Reduction Study for Porpoise Point and a shore protection project at Vilano Beach, where beach re-construction was recently completed and dune vegetation planting is presently under way.
“We and our St. Johns County partners are committed to pursuing a sustained, environmentally coherent and effective effort to study, understand and protect this national treasure for the benefit of its present residents and for the benefit of the generations that come after us,” Kelly said.
With the congressional funding, the district and the county will proceed with the development and signing of a Feasibility Cost Sharing Agreement to complete the study within three years at a total cost of no more than $3 million. The district and the county will each provide half the funding.
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