Posted on November 22, 2024
PANAMA CITY — The Board of County Commissioners for Bay County amended a grant agreement Tuesday, adding $2.5 million to a beach re-nourishment project for Mexico Beach. The total cost for the project is around $14.7 million and is covered by grants from state and federal agencies.
The re-nourishment will cover all three miles of the city of Mexico Beach’s shoreline, extending from Eighth Street to 37th Street. The whole project will require almost 1 million cubic yards of sand, according to the Mexico Beach Community Development Council’s website. They go on to note that the re-nourishment is intended to provide critical storm protection for public and private infrastructure, structures, and property near the coast.
A webpage for the project on Bay County government’s website says that Mexico Beach used to have an extensive beach and dune system that provided habitat to sea turtles and shorebirds. The dunes would also provide Mexico Beach protection from erosion and storm surge during weather events.
Many of the dunes were lost after the city was decimated by Hurricane Michael in 2018. The re-nourishment project will rebuild some of the dunes alongside the beach extension.
Officials expect the project should start in early 2025 and will take around three months to complete, according to the MBCDC website.
The Bay County Tourist Development Council, the Mexico Beach Community Development Council and Bay County are managing the construction alongside Weeks Marine, the dredging contractor.
“Mexico Beach is finally about to have the first re-nourishment they have ever had, so we’re about to extend the beaches over there,” Bay County Commissioner Robert Carroll said during the commission meeting. “I will be out there when they first start pumping sand and it’s more exciting than that, but it’s pretty incredible that they get to fix those beaches once and for all.”
The sand will come from the sea floor in their offshore “borrow area” and be transported using submerged pipes to the beach. The beach is slated to extend 175 feet from the toe of new proposed sand dunes.
