VILANO BEACH, Fla. – The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers finished the Vilano Beach renourishment project ahead of hurricane season.
The nearly 3-mile project spans from the Ocean Villas at Serenata Beach to north of Nease Beach Front Park. It widened the beach and rebuilt the dunes to 2015 conditions before Hurricane Matthew hit.
“It looks twice as wide,” said Michael Glass who grew up in Jacksonville and visited Vilano Beach often.
Joseph Giammanco, St. Johns County Director of Emergency Management, said the project finished ahead of schedule and under budget.
“The project does a lot of good things for us and good things for the community,” said Giammanco. “It protects the beach, it protects the roadways, it protects the evacuation routes. It is also a major economic driver for the community for tourism and it protects property.”
Giammanco said the project finished at a good time ahead of hurricane season.
“It’s a pretty substantial restoration project so we’ll have a great benefit of being able to protect the coastline in case we do have an event this year,” explained Giammanco.