beach restoration update

Do you by any chance have any information on when they are going to complete the county accesses that have been started or a website to go to to find this information.

Do you by any chance have any information on when they are going to complete the county accesses that have been started or a website to go to to find this information.

My understanding is that the County would not begin reconstruction of the walkovers until Hurricane Season ends, Nov 30.

This page tells you which are open:

http://www.partners.beachesofsouthwalton.com/Open_Beach_Access.asp

Thanks,

I have some friends coming in during Thanksgiving and the walkover at Ramsgate has some ramp to it and the pillars up and some wood delivered and it looks like sand put under but no activitiy in a couple of weeks. I am just wondering why they don't come and finish it.

The accesses at Live Oak and Thyme in Seagrove had just the posts for the longest time. The walkovers were finally finished a few weeks ago. So maybe there is hope that yours will get done soon.

The restoration of 7.1 miles of beaches in Walton County and the City of Destin will begin by early January.
The $23 million to fix the beaches will be split by the two governing bodies proportional to the percent of beach in each one?s jurisdiction. With 69 percent of the project in Walton County, the county will pay nearly $16 million, said Bill Imfeld, Walton County finance director.
The Walton Board of County Commissioners voted to approve the restoration at a special meeting on Nov. 28 at the South Walton Annex.
Overall, the project will extend the beach 75 ? 125 feet, and raise the existing beach by 3-5 feet. It will build a dune that will offer protection against storm surge, Brad Pickel, director of beach management for Walton County, said.
?We will dump 80 cubic yards of sand per foot on the beaches,? Pickel said at the Monday?s BCC meeting. ?We are looking at putting around three million yards of sand on the beaches.?
The area of beach to be restored is from Topsail Hill Preserve State Park in Walton County west to Henderson State Park in Destin.
Only four companies in the world are capable to do this job and the county received bids from two of them. Great Lakes Dredge and Dock, of Oak Park, Ill. was the winning bidder and will have the project completed in about 150 days after starting, Pickel said.
To accomplish the restructuring of the each, a boat will suck up the sand like a big vacuum cleaner from the borrow site off shore from the East Pass. It then will be taken and pumped back onto the beaches via an under water pipeline.
About 100 ? 300 feet of beach will be replenished a day. Inspectors will be on the beaches to ensure that the proper color and size sand is going onto the beach. If a pocket of bad sand is mistakenly put onto the beach it will be bulldozed into the ocean and replaced with the proper sand, Pickel said.
Bulldozers and front-end loaders will shape the beaches and dunes into a natural shape.
Pickel added that small winter storms will help shape the beaches back into their natural shape.

That is very interesting, thanks for the info. 😀

That should be something to see! I hope SJ or Kurt gets down there with a camera.

I am so glad to hear this is going to be done. :clap_1: I wondered from the very beginning why this wasn't being considered. This was done on Panama City Beach and it made a hugh difference quickly. Looks like insurance companies would ante-up some money on this, since it will save them millions in the long run. It would just take 12 houses or 1 condo building collapsing to equal $23 million.

Those statements on restoration are worded so vaguely. I just hope if they decide to restore some, they restore all the walton beaches and not leave big gaping holes in between. I suppose it wouldn't surprise me if that happened though because some areas of 30a don't have the same $political $influence that other areas do.. :idontno:

finish covering the retaining/seawall structres with the dune they're going to build - also, that's a lot of sand - theres going to be a really big hole somewhere

Representatives from Walton County, Destin, and state and federal agencies met with Great Lakes Dredge and Dock Company in a pre-construction meeting Monday to discuss the parameters of the upcoming project.
Beginning in January, the dual county re-nourishment project will pump more than 3 million cubic yards of sand onto a 7-mile span beach proceeding westward from Four Mile Village.
Sand quality and environmental regulations were the main points of discussion.
Taylor engineering representative Rajesh Srinivas assured the group that Great Lakes would adhere to permit standards concerning sand. No less than an 8.1, out of ten on the Munsell color scale, would be used.
?Everyone loves the sugar white sand here,? he said.
Representatives from the Department of Environmental Protection and Florida Fish and Wildlife Services were concerned about the project?s environmental implications for wildlife, including manatees, sea turtles, beach mice, Gulf sturgeon and shorebirds.
Lorna Patrick with FWS explained that 30 turtles had already been relocated in Panama City.
To accommodate the wildlife, Great Lakes must observe quiet periods in the East Pass for the Gulf sturgeon to migrate. In addition, they are to be cognizant of shorebird and turtle nesting seasons.
?It?s the guy on the bulldozer that has to know what he?s doing,? Robbin Trindell with FWS said. ?Walton County and Destin did a good job planning and implementing.?
The project is slated for completion by May 19, 2006, in time for Memorial Day weekend.

From Walton Sun

Environmental issues may slow the Walton County and Destin joint beach renourishment project.
Originally slated for completion by Memorial Day weekend, Grants and Project Manager for the City of Destin Lindey Chabot said contractors are now estimating public beaches completion by June 1 and the entire project by July.
?We?re going according to the contractor?s conservative estimates,? Chabot said.
Initially, contractors were going to be on the beach by January. According to Chabot, the timeline has been pushed back to February.
In addition, the Walton- Destin project will have to coordinate with an Army Corps of Engineer?s upcoming project. Due to sand blocking the pathway of larger vessels, Congress asked the Corps to clear East Pass. The Corps is executing its project around the same time as the renourishment project.
According to Florida Fish and Wildlife Service mandates, dredging for both projects have to work around the Gulf sturgeon?s migratory season.
?(The project) will be slower at first because of the sturgeon,? Chabot said. ?After April, there are not as many environmental concerns.?
In addition to environmental issues, the Save Our Beaches organizations in Destin and Walton County continue to pose obstacles.
?They are still doing everything they can to stop the project,? Chabot said. ?But there is nothing so far that has stopped the program.?
Brad Pickel, director of beach management for the Walton County Tourist Development Council, said the project can be disconnected if Walton County or Destin have separate litigation problems.
?Our project can be split off from a constructabilty standpoint,? he said.
A small number of individual property owners, many who are not full-time residents, continue to lobby against the project, explained Chabot.
?There are one or two that are really pressing it. They really don?t understand the issue,? she said.
Chabot said the group?s main contention with the project is violation of their property rights.
?It?s all beyond me because it doesn?t involve private property,? she said. ?The construction is done on sovereign land.?
Pickel said the project should continue as intended.
?Our goal is to build a continuous project. All indicators show that (Destin) is going to work right there with us,? he said.

From Walton Sun

Finding enough white sand to fix Walton County?s beaches is the major obstacle in future beach nourishment projects.
Nourishment of nearly five miles of beach in western Walton County is scheduled to begin on Jan. 23. Suitable sand was found off the East Pass to extend those beaches 75 - 125 feet.
The other 15 miles of beaches under the Tourist Development Council?s watch will need an estimated 10 million cubic yards of sand and cost $45 million, said Brad Pickel, director of beach management for Walton County.
Finding sand of the same size, color and composition that residents and tourists are used to will be an on going process.
?We are going to be looking for sand forever,? Pickel said before about 60 attendees at a TDC meeting at the Baytowne Conference Center on Jan. 9. Borrow sites offshore are being looked at to find sand.
Many in the audience had concerns about the upcoming beach nourishment project in the western end of the county. The project is scheduled to finish in June and July.
Residents who rent out their homes wanted to know when the project will be in their area so they could notify potential renters. A timetable for the restoration will be available by next week, Pickel said.
The $23 million project will dredge up 3 million cubic yards of sand off the East Pass and pump it back onto seven miles of beaches in Destin and Walton County.
Part of the delay is attributable to the gulf sturgeon. The sturgeon migrates through the East Pass and for every hour of dredging done there has to be three hours of quiet time to ensure dredging won?t interfere with the gulf sturgeon, Pickel said.
The quiet time restriction will last until June. After that two dredges will be able to operate around the clock.
Equipment is scheduled to be on the beaches next week, with sand being pumped onto the beach by Jan. 23, Pickel said.


>>>>

keep up with the schedule and other info at http://www.protectwaltoncountybeaches.com

From Walton Sun - Walkovers

With tourist season right around the corner, Walton County continues to restore beaches to pre-Dennis conditions.
?It?s going very well,? Director for the Walton County Tourist Development Council Kriss Titus said.
Twenty-five of 29 flagpoles have been replaced on area beaches. According to Titus, two more will be replaced by the end of the week.
Twenty-one of the 56 boardwalks destroyed during Hurricane Dennis have been replaced. The TDC is moving into the second phase of dune walkover construction, which calls for the replacement of 18 additional boardwalks.
There are a couple of areas Titus anticipates reinstalling boardwalks in the future. However, the construction of seawalls and beach nourishment is delaying the process.
?We want to get all the boardwalks up but we can?t until construction is completed,? she said.
The TDC is also looking into experimental methods of restoring beach accesses. The Board of County Commissioners approved a motion that would allow the TDC to develop a request for proposal for the construction of a retractable dune walkover at the Greenwood Street access.
It would be the first time the county has used retractable walkovers. Space, weather and dismantling time are all factors that have to be taken into consideration, explained Titus.
?We?re really limited to how many retractable boardwalks we can have on the beach,? she said.
Titus said that the TDC continues to pursue improved methods of beach infrastructure restoration.
?(After recent hurricanes), we learned a valuable lesson,? she said.

How many seawalls are being constructed?

How many seawalls are being constructed?

170 temporary permits were issued by the county up until the dealine in October. Not nearly that many have been started. On a side note, I was just reading about how in a couple of places, homeowners built seawalls between properties right across public accesses. This is better than leaving a gap I suppose but may delay the rebuild of walkovers at those locations.