Intracoastal Waterway dredging begins in Flagler, St. Johns

A U.S. Army Corps of Engineers dredging project poised to remove over 400,000 cubic yards of beach-quality sand and material from the Intracoastal Waterway in St. Johns and Flagler counties got underway this week.

Spokespersons from the federal agency’s Jacksonville office announced the start of the maintenance effort in a statement released Wednesday. Army Corps is partnering with the Florida Inland Navigation District, or FIND, a special state taxing district that includes 12 counties along the Atlantic Intracoastal, to complete the project, which includes four basins and channels in St. Johns County and a portion of the waterway in Flagler that’s dubbed “cut F-2.” Plans call for dredging those areas down to 12-foot depths.

"Maintenance dredging of the (Intracoastal) helps us improve conditions for boaters using the (Intracoastal) in that safer navigation is achieved by removing dangerous shoals," Shelley Trulock, Army Corps’ project manager with the Jacksonville District, said in the statement. "Placing of dredge material on local beaches is what we call 'regional sediment management,' taking maintenance dredge material and placing it on beaches, which helps stabilize the shoreline providing both storm and environmental benefits."

[READ ALSO: Corps awards $5.9M for dredging near Matanzas Inlet]

Army Corps officials announced in July that Indiana dredging firm Southwind Construction Corporation had been hired as the lead contractor to do the work at a cost of $5.9 million. The project is expected to last six months.