Navarre Beach $15 million sand restoration project to run March to June 2016
Kaycee Lagarde, klagarde@pnj.com
Navarre Beach, FL
The shoreline and dunes of Navarre Beach will soon be getting a nearly $15 million overhaul, with the beach’s first restoration in about a decade set to begin this spring.
Covering the entire length of Navarre Beach, the project is expected to start in late March or early April and finish by June, said Santa Rosa County Administrator Hunter Walker.
And although the timing is less than ideal from a tourism perspective, county officials are confident that the impact will not be detrimental — particularly with the majority of the beach remaining open as the work is completed.
“It’s only 200 feet a day of the beach that’s not usable, wherever they’re dredging that day,” Santa Rosa County Tourist Development Director Julie Morgan said. “So I don’t think it’s going to deter people from using our beach.”
The county’s tourism office is still making preparations for the beach restoration, Morgan said, planning to tie it in with a home-school campaign already scheduled to kick off in April.
“This could be an educational spin on it as well,” Morgan said. “And also with the seashells, we’re going to have a lot more seashells than normal on the beach and a lot of people love to look for seashells. And it’s a necessary improvement for our beach.”
Navarre Beach’s only previous renourishment project was in 2006, Walker said, but the constantly changing beaches are evaluated every year by Coastal Tech Gulf Engineers & Consultants to gather information for restoration needs.
“They estimate how much sand has accreted, how much is lost, where has the beach changed,” Walker said. “You’ll gain sand in some places and lose some in others. Really, it’s an ongoing process.”
County commissioners this month approved the contract for beach restoration with Weeks Marine Inc., the lowest bidder at about $14.9 million. WMI is expecting to complete the project within 190 days, according to the contract.
The two other bidders proposed a contract time of about a year, with significantly higher bids of about $16.8 million and $25.9 million.
Funding for the project will come from several sources, Walker said, including a Municipal Service Benefit Unit for Navarre Beach leaseholders. The amount of that MSBU has not been determined, but Walker said he expects it to go before the County Commission in February.
About $2 million in Federal Emergency Management Agency funding and another $2.75 million from the state will contribute to the restoration, with the remainder paid for by the county and the MSBU, Walker said.
Commissioner Rob Williamson, who represents the Navarre area, said although he shares the public’s frustration with the project’s timing, it is a crucial investment in one of the county’s greatest natural resources.
“There’s never a good time to do these types of projects, but with the help of the legislature and a lot of hard work we were able to get this funded and can finally move forward with restoring what is a critically eroded beach,” Williamson said. “And that restoration will also protect our tourism economy.”