Posted on January 21, 2026
Fresh off being named by Conde Nast readers as the best beach in the U.S., Pensacola Beach is about to undergo a $35 million beach renourishment project to expand and improve more than eight miles of public beach.
Santa Rosa Island Authority (SRIA) Executive Director Mike Burns says work to add 1. 8 trillion cubic yards of sand is scheduled to begin Jan. 26 and will wrap up in a couple of months before Spring Break begins in earnest.
The 8.1-mile area targeted for renourishment stretches from the entrance to Fort Pickens on the west end of Santa Rosa Island, to where the National Seashore park picks up again to the east, or from “park to park.”
Equipment will be staged at Park West, near the Fort Pickens gate.
“They’re going to go west to east on the project,” Burns said. “There’ll be five ships involved from the borrow pit offshore, about four or five miles offshore. We hope to get the project completed by April 1, maybe sooner.”
Burns said the renourishment is critical for the local tourism industry, residents and Escambia County’s overall economic vitality.
He said it’s also essential for preserving the beach, enhancing hurricane protection by mitigating erosion during storms, and protecting infrastructure, like the $28 million Florida Power and Light invested to harden power lines on the beach.
“It’s a great thing because it protects all the infrastructure, the homes on the beach, all the residential leaseholders, all the commercial leaseholders, and people like to come to a big beach,” Burns said. “Historically, beach nourishment is really the main reason Miami Beach, for example, became probably the number one real estate market in the United States.”
The project is being paid for with a combination of funds from the SRIA, Escambia County and the Tourist Development Council to the tune of more than $16 million, plus matching state monies, adding up to about $35 million.
Burns said the TDC has also increased its annual allocation for future beach nourishment projects from $500,000 to $1 million, taking a more proactive approach to long-term beach health.
Escambia County District 4 Commissioner and Chair Ashlee Hofberger represents Pensacola Beach. She is excited to see the project get underway.
“We definitely need to protect it, not just for the people who live out there, but also for the tourism industry,” Hofberger said. “I’m thankful that we’re moving forward with the project.”
