Posted on August 21, 2018
The federal government has struck a $15.7 million deal to restore eroded sections of Jacksonville’s beaches that were battered last year by Hurricane Irma.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers this week contracted Manson Construction Co. to rebuild about 8 miles of shorefront in Jacksonville, Neptune and Atlantic beaches as well as dunes around Hanna Park and southern Jacksonville Beach.
The first sites for the work haven’t been decided yet, but most of the project is expect to be completed by winter, said Kevin Bodge, a marine engineering consultant who tracks beach restoration work for Jacksonville.
About 850,000 cubic yards of sand will be collected 7 miles offshore and moved to pipelines that spread it along the shoreline.
Details of the work schedule will be fleshed out over the next few weeks, but Seattle-based Manson “expressed a lot of interest in getting the project started as soon as possible,” Bodge said.
The Corps is paying the entire cost for beach restoration — an unusually generous offer made after Irma pummeled Florida last year — and Jacksonville is contributing $1.7 million to repair dunes that were damaged by that storm and Hurricane Matthew in 2016.
The city’s money will also pay for planting sea oats on rebuilt dunes to help stabilize them, Bodge said.
He said the city could seek reimbursement for the cost from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
The Corps contract allows Manson about 11 months to complete the beach restoration. Bodge said work might stop and restart at times during the winter if the company chooses to move gear to other jobs that have to be conducted during very short time frames, but that the agreement with Manson allows a lot of work to be done.
Source: jacksonville.com
