St. Augustine Beach project enters home stretch

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Jacksonville District continues to make great progress in completion of the emergency restoration beach nourishment project to A Street in St. Augustine Beach and wrapped up on Friday, 9 August.

Focus will now turn to replacing some of the lost sand near and around the pier after Hurricane Debby. Refilling the beach template near the pier will provide additional buffer between the upland infrastructure and the ocean to help dissipate wave energy and provide the intended coastal storm risk management benefits until the next planned renourishment.

The design intent of placing an extra-wide beach near the pier is for waves and currents to quickly reshape the fill by transporting sand from the dry recreational beach and depositing it below the waterline and to the adjacent beaches north and south of the project.

The adjustment of the beach to a more natural “equilibrated” shape may appear to dramatically decrease the beach width, but the project is operating as designed.

The equilibration process will begin immediately after placement, with full adjustment typically requiring many months or multiple significant wave events.

Once the beach has reached an equilibrium condition, the beach is expected to recede at a slower rate and expose the pier to wave action.

Work around the pier will continue through this week and then the contractor will move into Anastasia State Park with overall completion in late August 2024.