ST. AUGUSTINE BEACH, Fla. – The pier in St. Augustine Beach is quite a sight to see.
“Beautiful. It’s not that bad,” Ryan Smith said.
The Smith family came all the way from Georgia on vacation. They walked down the St. Johns County Ocean Pier on Anastasia Island and noticed it was quite a long way from the water.
“I think the purpose here is to go over the water,” said Ryan Smith.
But that’s not the case anymore. The pier is closed for fishing because the pier is surrounded by sand and doesn’t even reach the ocean.
It’s all part of the St. Johns County Shore Protection Project. The goal is to renourish the eroded shoreline between the southern limits of Anastasia State Park a few miles south of St. Augustine Inlet.
The added sand acts as a protection from future storms and erosion. This is just one of many areas the Army Corps of Engineers is renourishing as part of a $33 million project.
“We have been getting a lot of phone calls and questions. ‘Where did the water go? This is a fishing pier, not a dock,’ and so we would explain to them, you know, this happens every five years,” said St. Augustine Beach Mayor Dylan Rumrell.
That’s because the coast takes a beating from storms and hurricanes. In January, where there is now sand, there was just water.
Mayor Rumrell said this area of the beach is notorious for being washed out.
“This is the most eroded section of St. Johns County beaches, from the state park to just about a block south of where we’re standing right now, is the most eroded section of all St. Johns County beaches. Which is hard to believe of the 42 miles of beaches in this one section is the motherland of erosion,” said Rumrell.
Now, it’s the motherland of sand. It is quite the walk from the parking lot to the actual water.
“Two football fields,” said Rumrell.
If the Smith’s come back in five years they will likely be standing over water but for now, this view will do.