Posted on August 5, 2024
ST. PETE BEACH, Fla. — The Pass-a-Grille Beach renourishment project is scheduled to be complete in November and will triple the size of the current beach, according to Pinellas County Coastal Management Coordinator Dr. John Bishop.
“It’s nice to see some progress,” he said. “Get some sand placed on the beach again.”
About two weeks ago, a contractor began dredging the Pass-a-Grill inlet after getting a permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Bishop said it’s much cheaper and environmentally beneficial to pump sand onto the beach from the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico versus having it trucked in from Polk County.
“The truck haul method can be double or more in cost,” he said. “It also keeps our passes clean. So, right now we’re actually pumping it out of the federal channel.”
Pinellas County paid $30 million to truck sand in for emergency dune restoration after Hurricane Idalia brushed by the coast last August.
The total cost for the Pass-a-Grille beach renourishment project is $5.8 million, which also includes dredging the Grand Canal during Phase 1 in June. Most of the cost is being paid for with tourist development tax money, and more than $1 million is coming from the American Rescue Plan Act.
Historically, the federal government has paid for most of the cost to regularly renourish the Pinellas County beaches, but the county has been in a standoff with U.S. Army Corps of Engineers since 2015 over required perpetual easements. Around half of the beachfront homeowners won’t sign the easements, which forced the county to do the renourishment alone with bed tax funds.
“We’ve been fighting to solve our beach renourishment issues for a long time.” Bishop said. “It’s nice to see some progress where we can actually start putting sand ourselves.”
While other Pinellas beaches have passed their regular 10-year beach renourishment cycle due to the impasse, the federal permit came just in time for Pass-a-Grille. Bishop said it won’t need to be renourished again for another 10 years.
Up to 10,000 cubic yards of sand was pumped onto Pass-a-Grille Beach from the Grand Canal dredge. The Pass-a-Grille inlet dredge will add an additional 140,000 cubic yards.
he volume of sand will extend the beach 170 feet from the edge of the sand dunes to the waterline and raise the elevation about 5 feet.
Construction on the section of beach south of 10th Avenue is expected to be complete by the end of August. Beach access points from First Avenue to Ninth Avenue will be closed, but the rest of the beach remains open. Bishop said visitors should avoid the construction area for their own safety.
“I know people like to go shelling and they think all the best shells would be the ones that just put on there, but we don’t want people entering the construction site at all,” he said. “It’s dangerous. They’re actively working and they’re using heavy equipment.”
In September, the project will move north from 10th Avenue to 22nd Avenue, and is scheduled to be complete in November.
“This is going to be a 24/7 operation,” said Bishop. “That is to let them finish as quickly as possible.”
Public works has a website for up-to-date closures and the contractor has been working with their partners to minimize disruptions to sea turtle nests.
