Posted on June 23, 2025
New Smyrna Beach’s Turnbull Creek Land Preservation Committee received an update on dredging north of Jungle Road from Public Works Director David Ray last Monday, June 16.
“As of last week, they’ve taken 1,900 cubic yards of sediment out. They have about 500 feet left to finish and then they’re going to go back and [clean up] the first 100 feet again. They do have a lot of vegetation that’s just sitting on the banks right now and they’re going to clean all that up. Their goal is to be out of there by the end of the month.”
Funded in part by a U.S. Department of Agriculture grant, the project involves widening and deepening the creek as well as clearing invasive plants and other debris to help improve water quality and slow stormwater surge. Crews began dredging north of Jungle Road on April 7 after working their way up from where the creek meets Old Mission Road just south of Josephine Street.
Ray is also working on approvals from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and FEMA to repurpose sediment dug from the creek bed into fill for sandbags the city distributes ahead of hurricanes and tropical storms. He assured Chair Donna Athearn “there was a little bit of clay, but the vast majority is very sandy.”
“I encourage you to please go to Jungle Road and take a look up that creek. The widening is amazing. I didn’t recognize what 15 feet really looked like, and it is enormous. It looks like it did when I was a kid riding through there on horseback. So, I’m very excited,” said Athearn.
Would you like to know more? Watch video replay of the meeting alongside its agenda here and see the city’s other stormwater management projects here.
Turnbull Creek, now wider and deeper, as seen looking north from Jungle Road on June 18, 2025
Public Works Director David Ray, center, briefs members of New Smyrna Beach’s Turnbull Creek Land Preservation Committee, seated at the dais, on June 16, 2025
