- July 12, 2025
A rendering of the new pier design by Moffatt & Nichol. The first 100 feet of the original pier will be preserved. Image courtesy of Moffatt & Nichol
Gabe Perdomo, project manager for pier design firm Moffat & Nichol. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Justin McKay, project manager for contractor Vecellio & Grogan. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Flagler Beach City Manager Dale Martin. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Project administrator Jason Cronk of England-Thims & Miller. Photo by Brent Woronoff
A rendering of the new pier design by Moffatt & Nichol. Image courtesy of Moffatt & Nichol
The clock has started on the $14.1 million Flagler Beach pier replacement project. But it might be days before actual construction begins, City Manager Dale Martin said at a public information meeting Wednesday, June 11, at Santa Maria del Mar Catholic Church.
“The city issued the notice to proceed today,” Martin said. “Now we have to work with (the Florida Department of Transportation) for final coordination.”
Traffic, parking and pedestrian crosswalks with be diverted during construction on State Road A1A from South Fifth Street north to South Third Street to accommodate a 400-foot work set-up zone. The northbound traffic lane in that area will be closed. Northbound traffic will be shifted to the current southbound lane with southbound traffic shifting to the parallel parking area on the west side of the road.
A temporary crosswalk to the beach will be set up on the corner of South Sixth Street with the next crosswalk at South Third Street in front of the pier.
The project is scheduled to be complete in December 2026, Martin said. Originally, the city had hoped to complete the pier by next year’s July 4th festivities.
The new pier will have a concrete frame, timber breakaway deck panels and timber rails. It will have an elevation of plus-28 feet, which is 10 feet higher than the pier’s current elevation. It will also have a 5-foot wider deck than the old pier with a width of 25 feet. It will stretch out 800 feet into the ocean, which was about the length of the original pier.
The pier has been closed since September 2022 when Hurricane Ian tore off a chunk. But since the pier originally opened in 1928, it has withstood many storms.
“The pier has been very resilient, relatively speaking, for a deck elevation of plus-18 feet, which is about the elevation of A1A in that area,” said Gabe Perdomo, project manager for the pier’s designer, Moffat & Nichol.
“The next pier is not going to be built with timber,” he said. “It is going to be built with concrete piles, concrete bent caps and concrete stringers, so the skeleton structure of this pier is going to be far more robust, far more resilient than the timber design that has withstood over the course of the last 100 years.”
The first 100 feet of the original pier will remain. An ADA-compliant ramp will rise 10 feet with a 5% slope connecting to the new deck.
The 28-foot elevation is similar to other recently constructed piers in Florida including the nearby Jacksonville Beach pier, which has a height of 27.5 feet.
The T-head at the end of the pier will be restored at 20 feet by 32 feet. There will be a new firewater system that meets codes, potable water with three fish-cleaning stations, benches, turtle lighting and artistic shade structures that “capture the image of a pelican,” Perdomo said.
The first step in the construction will be building a temporary trestle, or work bridge, needed to support the cranes and other equipment to be used in demolition and construction, said Justin McKay, project manager for contractor Vecellio & Grogan.
The construction will be noisy, McKay said, but the noise will decrease as construction progresses out into the water.
In addition to the design and construction firms, Jason Cronk, of civil engineering firm England Thims & Miller will serve as project administrator, monitoring construction activities and ensuring the pier is built to plan and specifications. Cronk will report to Flagler Beach Project Manager Chris Novak.
The separate beach walk project won’t begin for six to eight months at the earliest, Martin said, because FEMA, which is funding the majority of the pier project, wants to make sure the two projects are financially separated with no shared labor or equipment.
The county is providing $750,000 of the first phase of the beach walk project, which will encompass the renovation of the structures under the pier’s iconic A-frame entrance including bathrooms, the radio station and the space housing the bait shop.
The city will fund phase two of beach walk project — constructing a new promenade boardwalk south of the pier.
Updates on the pier project will appear regularly on Flagler Beach’s website, cityofflaglerbeach.com and the city’s Facebook page, Martin said.
