$18 million Port Canaveral beach project expected to finish by April

Jim Waymer
Florida Today

An $18 million project to restore sand to 3.5 miles of beaches, from Port Canaveral's Jetty Park to south of Cocoa Beach Pier, is on pace to finish by the end of April, Port Canaveral officials said.

Port Canaveral's federally funded project to replenish sand on the beaches south of the port makes progress, with workers heading south, now near Harbor Heights. The $18 million sand project will  restore 3.5 miles of beach, from Jetty Park to Cocoa Beach Pier.
The project -- formally known as Phase V of the Canaveral Harbor Federal Sand Bypass Project -- will move about 1.4 million cubic yards of sand to replenish beaches south of Port Canaveral. The project will pump sand taken from the shoreline north of Port Canaveral along Cape Canaveral Air Force Station to beaches south of Port Canaveral.

The project must wrap up by April 30 — the last day before turtle nesting season begins and when most coastal projects must stop to avoid disturbing nesting of the protected species.  

Work began in early December on the largest of five beach renourishment projects in the Port Canaveral area since 1995.

The work puts temporary restrictions on public access to sections of beach within about 1,000 feet of the daily construction activity for about three to four days at a time.

The project pumps sand from the shoreline north of Port Canaveral along Cape Canaveral Air Force Station to beaches south of the Canaveral Inlet, widening beaches from Jetty Park to 0.6 miles south of the Cocoa Beach Pier, just north of State Road 520.

The project is funded mostly by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Other funding for supplemental elements of the project — such as environmental monitoring — is provided by the Canaveral Port Authority and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.

In September, the Corps of Engineersawarded the $18 million contract for the project to Norfolk Dredging Co. of Chesapeake, Virginia.

Olsen Associates Inc., a Jacksonville-based coastal engineering firm has been contracted by the port to provide consulting services for the project. The firm posts the latest project updates to its website.

The sand placement initially will widen beaches by about 150 feet.

Previous projects in 1995, 1998, 2007 and 2010 pumped a combined 3.44 million cubic yards of sand onto nearby beaches.

Beach renourishment in the winter of 2017-18 repaired storm damage to the beach and dunes caused by Hurricanes Matthew and Irma in 2016 and 2017.

Contact Waymer at 321-242-3663

or jwaymer@floridatoday.com.

Twitter: @JWayEnviro

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