Project Status Update
DATE: 5 April 2019
The City of Jacksonville will award a contract by mid-April for the installation of about 340,000 native dune plants (mostly sea oats) along the project shoreline from Hanna Park through the Jacksonville Beaches to the Duval/St. Johns County line. Planting of the dune vegetation is anticipated to occur from mid-June through early August, 2019, to be completed by 15 August.
DATE: 14 February 2019
Beach fill placement and dune construction is complete. In order to prepare the newly constructed beach for the upcoming sea turtle nesting season, the beach berm was tilled according to the requirements set forth by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.
The City of Jacksonville is presently soliciting bids for the vegetation of the newly constructed dunes. Dune vegetation is anticipated to begin in Spring/Summer of 2019.
DATE: 23 January 2019
Beach fill placement and dune construction is presently delayed due to weather. Work is expected to recommence on January 23-24 with beach fill placement and dune construction continuing southward along Atlantic Beach and Hanna Park to connect with previously completed work (expected on or about January 23-24). Beach fill placement will then resume northward within Hanna Park until project completion, which is estimated to be on or about January 28th. Equipment will then demobilize from the beach over the following 3-4 days.
In order to prepare the newly constructed beach for the upcoming sea turtle nesting season, the beach berm will be tilled according to the requirements set forth by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. The ultimate schedule for beach tilling is dependent upon equipment availability and may require up to 5 days to complete.
The City of Jacksonville is presently soliciting bids for the vegetation of the newly constructed dunes. Dune vegetation is anticipated to begin in Spring/Summer of 2019.
Progress Map (Click image for PDF)
DATE: 16 January 2019
Beach fill placement and dune construction continues northward along Atlantic Beach from about halfway between 18th Street and 19th Street. Beginning on or about January 19th, beach fill placement will initiate from within Hanna Park, north of 35th Street, and head south to connect with the completed work (expected on or about January 23rd). Beach fill placement will then resume northward until project completion, which is estimated to be on or about January 30th.
DATE: 9 January 2019
Beach fill placement and dune construction continues southward along Atlantic Beach from about halfway between 18th Street and 19th Street towards the completed work at ~11th Street. Beginning on or about January 11th, work will progress northward from 18/19th Street and is expected to continue until about January 19th. On or about January 19th, beach fill placement will initiate from within Hanna Park, north of 35th Street, and head south to connect with the completed work (expected on or about January 23rd). Beach fill placement will then resume northward until project completion, which is estimated to be on or about January 30th.
DATE: 2 January 2019
Beach fill placement and dune construction will continue northward along Atlantic Beach. By this weekend (January 5) sand placement will be mostly complete south of about 11th Street. Beginning on January 6/7th, beach fill and dune construction will originate halfway between 18th and 19th Streets and will progress southward along Atlantic Beach to the completed work at 11th Street (expected around January 14) and then proceed northward from 18/19th Street. Cessation of all dredging is still estimated to be on or about February 1st.
DATE: 26 December 2018
The beach fill will be completed in Neptune Beach from Walnut Street to Florida Blvd on or about December 26. After that, beach fill placement and dune repairs will resume in Atlantic Beach, beginning just north of One Ocean (Ahern/First Street) on or about 27 December, and proceed northward through January 2019.
DATE: 29 November 2018
By 30 November, the beach renourishment placement will be more or less completed along the southern 2.7 miles of the project – that is, from about 3rd Avenue North Jax Beach (500-ft south of the Pier) to the St. Johns/Duval County line. On December 1, construction equipment will be moving northward up the beach toward about 14th Avenue North, where beach renourishment placement will resume. (There was some initial beach nourishment placement around 14th-15th Avenue North on Tuesday-Wednesday of this past week, November 27-28, while the Contractor was repairing part of the pipeline needed to finish the southern part of the work near 13th-15th Avenue South.)
Per the current schedule, the beach nourishment placement is expected to be completed along almost all of Jacksonville Beach by about December 12, then moving northward into Neptune Beach.
DATE: 24 October 2018
Equipment and pipe began arriving at 16th Avenue South, Jacksonville Beach on October 15, 2018. Dredging and beach fill construction are anticipated to begin as early as November 1, 2018 in south Jacksonville Beach.
DATE: 26 September 2018
Sand renourishment of the Jacksonville Beaches is anticipated to begin construction in early October 2018. The project will place approximately 880,000 cubic yards of sand onto the beach and dune to repair storm damage from Hurricane Irma, and to complete dune repairs from Hurricane Matthew. About 810,000 cubic yards will be placed to the beach berm, and 70,000 cubic yards will be placed to the dune.
The project will span 8.6 miles of shoreline – from north-central Hanna Park to the Duval/St. Johns County Line – including all of Atlantic, Neptune and Jacksonville Beaches, and the southern mile of Hanna Park. Dunes that were severely damaged by Hurricanes Matthew and Irma, and not yet repaired, will be re-built along the northern mile of Atlantic Beach and the southern mile of Jacksonville Beach, along with placement of sand to the beach. Along those areas where the dune was re-built after Hurricane Matthew, some sand will be placed to the seaward face of the dune to repair the erosion caused by Hurricane Irma. Along Hanna Park, sand will be placed to the beach, but not to the dune.
The construction (dredging) contractor will be Manson Construction Company of Seattle, Washington. The east-coast office for Manson is located here in Jacksonville, and the company has a large office, staff and physical presence in northeast Florida, particularly Jacksonville Beach. The project will be managed by the US Army Corps of Engineers, Jacksonville District – which is also based here in Jacksonville.
In a pre-construction conference on September 5, 2018, Manson presented their anticipated schedule. Manson intends to begin mobilization of equipment to the beach in mid-October and commence dredging & beach fill in late October 2018, and conclude the work in mid-January 2019. The work will proceed from south to north; that is, from south Jacksonville Beach to Neptune Beach, to Atlantic Beach, and ending in Hanna Park. The dune and beach will be built concurrently. Overall, the contractor has 330 days to complete the work; that is, through about August 1, 2019. If necessary, the contractor may have to temporarily leave the work in the December-March timeframe to complete other dredging projects that can only be constructed during this time. In contrast, the Duval beach project can be constructed year-round, so long as precautions are taken to avoid and relocate marine turtle nests and shorebird nests in the late Spring and Summer months. Monitoring indicates that the marine turtle nests along the Jacksonville Beaches will have been hatched by the time construction begins in October.
The construction contract was awarded by the Corps of Engineers in the amount of $15,682,725 on August 13, 2018. All of the costs for the dredge mobilization and beach fill – amounting to some $14,182,725 – is paid 100% by the federal government, as repairs and project reconstruction from Hurricane Irma. The cost for the dune repairs – amounting to some $1,500,000 – is paid 100% by the City of Jacksonville; and these costs are eligible for between 50% and 82.5% reimbursement from the State of Florida and FEMA.
After the sand fill is placed, the City of Jacksonville will plant sea oats and other dune vegetation to stabilize the repaired sand dunes. It is anticipated that about 300,000 sea oats will be planted – in principal part to replace the 250,000 that were damaged in 2017 by Hurricane Irma. Concurrently, it is anticipated that the Beaches Cities will erect temporary PVC posts and ropes to remind people to stay off of the dunes.
The sand for the project will come from the same offshore seabed source used in the prior projects, specifically including the 2016/17 renourishment. This source is about 8 miles east of Neptune Beach, in about 55 feet of water depth. The sand is picked up from the seabed by a hopper dredge, held in the dredge’s hull, and sailed to the beach – where the dredge hooks up to a temporary pipeline through which the sand is pumped with water onto the beach. The sand is then spread by bulldozers.
During construction, about 1000 feet of shoreline is closed to the public at any given time, moving along the beach – about one block per day – as the beach is rebuilt. Overall, the construction process, the widening of the beach, and the end result of the 2018-19 renourishment will be very similar to that which has occurred during previous renourishment projects, including 2005, 2011, 2016/17. The beach nourishment project was first constructed in 1978/80. Excepting the recent back-to-back storm impact from Hurricanes Matthew and Irma in 2016/17, the beach is typically renourished about once every 6 years, more or less.