$20.2M erosion repair for Ponte Vedra, Vilano beaches set to start by September, end in '24

Steve Patterson, Florida Times-Union
·1 min read
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Eroding sands had vanished from beneath this Vilano Beach home in October, after remnants of Hurricane Ian had whipped St. Johns County's shoreline.
Eroding sands had vanished from beneath this Vilano Beach home in October, after remnants of Hurricane Ian had whipped St. Johns County's shoreline.

Crews are expected to begin adding sand to 3 miles of St. Johns County shoreline in September to repair erosion exacerbated last year by scrapes with remnants of Hurricanes Ian and Nicole.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said a $20.2 million contract for the beach renourishment will be entirely paid by the federal government as an emergency project.

The work will target parts of South Ponte Vedra and Vilano beaches that had been damaged by a November 2021 nor’easter and lost more sand when the hurricane remnants whipped the shoreline.

Weeks Marine Inc., a Louisiana-based contractor, is expected to begin staging equipment at Surfside Park and along Euclid Avenue by mid-August, then begin placing sand a few weeks later, the Corps of Engineers said in an announcement.

St. Johns County: Commissioners take action on erosion, look at long-term changes for Summer Haven

Boundaries for a $20.2 million beach repair in St. Johns County are marked in this project map by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Boundaries for a $20.2 million beach repair in St. Johns County are marked in this project map by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

The company is expected to install about 1.2 million cubic yards of sand, corps spokesman David Ruderman said Thursday.

The project, which could last until March, will pump sand dredged from an underwater borrow area about 7 nautical miles offshore — 8 statute miles — offshore.

The dredged sand will be used to renew both a beach berm and a dune, with plants placed in the dune for stability as segments of the beach project are finished.

For comparison, the amount of sand expected to be used in the 3-mile project is about the same as 10 miles of Jacksonville’s Beaches from Mayport to the St. Johns county line estimated to have been lost to Ian and Nicole.

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Erosion repairs for Ponte Vedra, Vilano beaches to start in September