PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – Ponte Vedra Beach is undergoing an emergency sand dune project, and temporary closures are planned to parts of the beaches where work is occurring.
St. Johns County held a meeting Tuesday night at the Ponte Vedra public library about the $34 million project that is predominately funded by FEMA. The enhancements are intended to provide extra protection to homes, businesses and infrastructure, and protect the coastline against future storms.
“Roughly, around 90% of it is coming from the feds, 5% from the state, 5% from the county,” explained Joseph Giammanco, the director of emergency management in St. Johns County.
The project will enhance the existing dunes by placing up to 4800,000 cubic yards of sand and planting dune vegetation in the areas below.
“It’s sections of it,” Giammanco said. “It’s nine miles in Ponte Vedra, a couple miles in South Ponte Vedra and then about 4,000 yards down in Crescent Beach.”
St. Johns County said efforts will be made to safely maintain pedestrian and vehicle access to the beaches and that most will remain open for the duration of the project. There will be temporary closures to the parts of the beach where work is occurring.
Those closures include Micker’s Landing Beachfront Park, where the beach will be closed Monday through Friday and open on the weekends during the course of the project.
Preparations for the project are scheduled to start in July. The county hopes to officially start late summer to early fall and finish at the end of December.
The county said it will provide updates here about the project. For more information, contact the Coastal Management team at 904-209-0260 or coastalprojects@sjcfl.us.