- April 24, 2024
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Flagler County has been seeking the Army Corps of Engineers' support for a beach renourishment program in Flagler Beach for more than a decade.
Now, the county finally has it: In a ceremony held at the Government Services Building July 23, County Commission Chairman Donald O'Brien, County Attorney Al Hadeed and Army Corps of Engineers Jacksonville District Commander Col. Andrew Kelly signed a project partnership agreement between the two government bodies.
"This project is critical for the protection of our shoreline," O'Brien said. "It's been in the works for a number of years. ... It's so important for us to have this project, so that we protect our shoreline and make sure that we protect all that property behind A1A, and our businesses, as well."
"When I first became a commissioner ... it just seemed like it was going to be study after study after study, and we listened to all kinds of engineering firms and came up with all kinds of projects. ... It's really wonderful that we got to this point."
— JANE MEALY, Flagler Beach city commissioner
Kelly said Flagler Beach has experienced significant erosion.
"This program is intended to reduce storm damage by 95% over the life of the project, to the tune of $1.1 million per year," he said.
It will also provide more than three acres of habitat for imperiled wildlife, he said.
Imperiled species that would gain habitat space include the piping plover, a shorebird; and three sea turtle species: the leatherback turtle, loggerhead turtle and green turtle, according to the Army Corps.
The project is officially titled the "Flagler County Coastal Storm Risk Management Project," and is intended to protect State Road A1A, development along the shoreline, and habitat for endangered and threatened wildlife.
The stretch of beach to be renourished, from Sixth Street South to 28th Street South, is 2.6 miles, and the project length will be 50 years, with additional renourishment planned for approximately every 11 years after the initial renourishment.
The work will cost an estimated $17.5 million and involve 500,000 cubic yards of sand, dredged from a borrow site about 10 miles offshore, for the initial project.
Most of the money — 65% — for the initial project will be federal, with the rest coming from the county and other sources.
Four supplemental renourishments over the course of the 50-year project timeline will involve 320,000 cubic yards of sand and are expected to total $81.3 million, shared 50-50 local and federal, according to the Army Corps of Engineers.
Critically for the county, the agreement requires that the federal government repair, at its cost, any project damage that occurs as a result of a hurricane, Flagler County Engineer Faith Alkhatib said.
Construction is planned to start in the coming spring and last approximately six months.
The Army Corps project will supplement the ongoing renourishment project, manager by Flagler County and the Florida Department of Transportation, that is occurring along 11.4 miles of beach north of State Road 100.
"This project, combined with what we did in the north … is probably the most important public works project in the history of this county," Hadeed said.
