Beach Restoration to Wrap Up Sooner Than Expected

A beach restoration project designed to protect homes, businesses, and tourism against intense storms and hurricanes in Ponte Vedra Beach is expected to wrap up sooner than first projected.

This is good news for residents and tourists enduring the 24-7 rumbling and beeping of bulldozers — not to speak of the sea turtles and shore birds exposed to harsh lighting, fencing, and the relocation of their nests.

The project, which began March 29, is now scheduled to wrap up by late June, according to updates on the St. Johns County website. Recently, the contractor added a second dredge in front of Mickler’s Landing, a local favorite for beachgoers. While Mickler’s will be closed from May 18 to May 22, it’s expected to speed up the work schedule, which was originally slated to finish in late August. 

For safety reasons, there will be no beach access where there’s active construction. Once a section of beach is filled in with sand, workers will remove the red-orange fences to let people go onto the beach and crews to plant dune vegetation. For updates on beach closures, parking closures and the project schedule, visit https://www.sjcfl.us/pvbeach/

The $38.6 million beach restoration project will replenish about nine miles of coastline by pumping roughly two million cubic yards of high-quality sand from an offshore site in the Atlantic Ocean.

Once finished, it will widen the beach to between 40 to 180 feet. The project will also raise the beach berm elevation to eight feet and rebuild the sand dunes, making them between 13 and 18 feet wide with sea oats and other beach-friendly plants that help stabilize the sand. 

Projects like this create a barrier that makes the beach, private property, and wildlife habitat less vulnerable to storms.

A separate, but similar, beach renourishment is also underway in Duval County. That 10-mile-long project, which began in early May, extends from the St. Johns County line north through Jacksonville Beach, Neptune Beach and Atlantic Beach up to the St. Johns River in Mayport. It’s expected to wrap up in late August. Beaches in Duval County will remain open during the project except for sections closed for heavy machinery. 

The U.S. Army Corp of Engineers is overseeing that $32.4 million project being performed by Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Co. The federal government funded the project due severe beach erosion from Hurricanes Ian and Nicole in 2022. For updates on the Duval County beach project, visit https://www.saj.usace.army.mil/Missions/Civil-Works/Shore-Protection/Duval-County/.

The restoration project in Ponte Vedra Beach, which extends south to the Guana Tolomato Matanzas National Estuarine Research Reserve, includes a 1-mile section of “critically eroded” coastline caused by Hurricanes Matthew and Irma in 2016 and 2017, according to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.

A certain rate of beach loss is normal over time due to hurricanes, nor’easters and sea level rise. But man-made structures like seawalls, inlets and private development have also contributed to shoreline recession, requiring local, state, and federal agencies to rely on beach construction projects.

Most of Ponte Vedra Beach’s restoration costs, roughly $30.6 million, were covered by the state. St. Johns County paid for the rest. In late February, the county approved the contractor, Weeks Marine, based in Cranford, N. J. 

Residents surveyed showed overwhelming support, ranging from 91 to 97 percent, for the Ponte Vedra coastal improvement project. It’s one of two still underway in St. Johns County, as several similar projects were completed last year. 

Beaches are key to the county’s tourism, economy and tax base, said St. Johns County District 4 Commissioner Krista Joseph at the sand breaking ceremony in April. 

“According to our Visitors and Convention Bureau, 44% of tourists visit St. Johns County for its beautiful beaches, and 76% stay overnight in our hotels, which means they would also eat in our restaurants and shop at our stores. If you come to Florida, you visit the beach, and that’s why this was so important to our County.”

If you’re interested in coastal Ponte Vedra or the surrounding communities in Northeast Florida, reach out to our team via our website or phone at (904) 465-9139.