Posted on April 1, 2019
More than a week after a local emergency was declared for Porpoise Point, the area near Vilano Beach was hammered by a nor’easter on Wednesday, highlighting the need for a long-term fix.
It’s something that’s in the works, but that isn’t helping the situation right now.
Currently, both St. Johns County Public Works staff and the Army Corps of Engineers are trying to find a more immediate fix while also thinking about the future.
Greg Caldwell, the county’s assistant director of Public Works, said workers started using concrete structures to protect Porpoise Point Drive the day after the County Commission declared the local emergency at its March 19 meeting.
About a year ago, the county built a berm to protect the road and had been doing routine rehabilitation on it as needed. However, it reached the point where mere rehab of the berm became futile.
“We felt like there needed to be more structure or a different plan in place for us to protect the road system,” Caldwell said. “Right now, it’s probably the worst it’s ever been with these nor’easters.”
It was important that the county did act when another nor’easter hit the area early Wednesday morning. Caldwell said the efforts so far have proven effective, but staff will monitor the situation closely today as well.
“Everything that we did last week is still holding pretty strong,” Caldwell said. “We feel pretty good about what we’ve done, but we’re still concerned about the next hide tide tonight.
“We’re feeling pretty darn good about the protection measures we took last week.”
Caldwell said it was so important that the county acted before this latest round of storms.
“It made all the difference,” he said. “Getting that declaration in place allowed us to do the protective measures and got us right now where we’re feeling pretty good about our position.”
However, the Public Works Department would prefer not to constantly fight the storms.
Part of an immediate fix is the possibility of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers using sand from a nearby dredging area to partially rebuild the protective barrier. That would be done at no cost to the county if it works out. The Army Corps was still doing some surveys this week to determine feasibility, Caldwell said.
But even if that works out, it will only be a temporary fix. That’s what Army Corps representative Jason Herrera told commissioners at the March 19 meeting.
“Beach renourishment is not the final solution for Porpoise Point,” Herrera said at the meeting. “It’s a dynamic inlet that needs a rock jetty type of structure that we’re trying to do with this CAP project. That’s a 3- to 5-year-out project.”
The CAP project — Continuing Authorities Program is a group of nine legislative authorities under which the Army Corps can plan, design and implement certain types of water resources projects without additional project specific congressional authorization — for Porpoise Point involves building something called a “T groin.”
That is defined by a College of Charleston website as a “man-made structure designed to trap sand as it is moved down the beach by the longshore drift. As the longshore drift current approaches the groin, it is forced to slow down and change direction.”
Caldwell described the proposed structure: “It would come out from Porpoise Point and it would almost have a T on the end of it. And that’s been very successful in other locations similar to Porpoise Point to protect the area.”
The St. Johns County Commission has approved the staff’s request for applying for the project, but final approval has not yet been granted at the federal level. If that goes through, there will be a study first, and the whole process will take three to five years.
“We’re pushing the Army Corps as much as we can to try and get that study in the works and get it funded,” Caldwell said.
The recent work by the county is making sure the Porpoise Point Drive is maintained and not really about the beach access and beach driving issues dealt with in the fall. The Parks and Recreation Department will continue to work with law enforcement and Fire Rescue on a regular basis to determine whether beach driving there is safe.
The hope is that the Army Corps project will bring stability to that situation as well. However, Caldwell said he wouldn’t know about that until the Army Corps does its study.
Source: staugustine.com
