Project Description

As a vibrant and resilient coastal Florida community, the City of Fernandina Beach takes a very pro-active approach to the management of their Atlantic Ocean beaches and reducing the risk of flooding and damage from coastal storm impacts. The City lies at the entrance to the St. Marys River along the Florida/Georgia State Line, and shares the entrance with the U.S. Navy, the Florida Park Service, the Port of Fernandina, and the State of Georgia, among numerous other groups. In a very unique and synergistic arrangement, the City partners with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), the U.S. Navy, and the State of Florida to maximize the beneficial use of dredged sediment taken annually from the maintenance of the navigation channel. In this program, which began in 1986 and is referred to as the Kings Bay Entrance Channel Project, the beach-quality sand is placed along the City shoreline to maintain the beach width and dune elevation along not only the City beaches, but also the inlet shoreline of the adjacent Ft. Clinch State Park (FDEP Park Service property).

Coincident with the U.S. Navy channel maintenance dredging and beach disposal, the USACE also maintains the Nassau County, FL, Shore Protection Project, which periodically places sand along the entirety of the Fernandina Beach ocean shoreline. The City of Fernandina Beach is the local sponsor and cost-share partner with the USACE for this comprehensive beach nourishment program. The large-scale maintenance nourishment operation began in 2008, and occurs on a 5-6 year renourishment interval. The Shore Protection Project is typically designed and constructed in close coordination with the channel maintenance disposal project to assure that the designed beach conditions are maintained in good order. The Shore Protection Project is currently slated to be renourished in the Spring/Summer of 2025.

With their participation in both of these synergistic beach sand placement projects, the City has been very successful in constructing and maintaining both the protective dune features along the Atlantic shoreline and the storm-buffering beach width and elevation of the sandy beach itself. The vegetated dune fields along the project length have grown to a typical width of 100 to 150 ft wide, with elevations exceeding +15ft above Mean Sea Level. These conditions have vastly increased and maintained the level of storm and flood protection provided to upland properties and other City infrastructure.