- April 19, 2024
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The Army Corps of Engineers is appropriating $17 million to undertake a beach renourishment program along 2.6 miles of beach in Flagler Beach.
"They got us full design and construction money, and they hope they can design it quick," County Administrator Craig Coffey said July 23.
The county, he said, had told the Corps of Engineers that the county wasn't willing to move forward with the design phase of the project if the money wasn't also available for construction.
Coffey said he hoped the Army Corps project will come before the Flagler County Commission sometime in the next three months.
In addition to a stretch of beach renourishment financed primarily with Florida Department of Transportation money, the Army Corps project would bring the section of beach that will be renourished in Flagler Beach to 6.25 miles.
Meanwhile, the county is 5.75 miles into a 12-mile dune reconstruction project.
Beachfront residents whose dunes have been reconstructed, Coffey said, "are pretty happy they got the dunes in their section."
The completed area runs from the north end of Washington Oaks Gardens State Park to the halfway mark between Jungle Hut Road and Varn Park, as well as a short section of Painters Hill, according to a Flagler County government news release. More than 300,000 sea oats have been planted along the reconstructed dune, according to the news release.
As of July 23, the county had finished work at Jungle Hut park and was starting at Varn Park, which will close while construction is underway.
To prevent beachgoers from damaging the newly reinforced dunes, the county has been placing heavy-duty mats called "Mobi-Mats" over the dunes leading down to the beach.
The county will have placed the mats — as well as informational "Dodge the Dunes" signs warning people not to tread on the dunes — at nine beach access points in the unincorporated areas by the end of the week, according to the news release.
The mats are wheelchair accessible, and the wide ones placed at MalaCompra Road, 16th Road (Old Salt Park), and Jungle Hut Road also give Flagler County Fire Rescue-Ocean Rescue access points for trailers carrying jet skis used for emergency rescues, according to the news release.
“The completed dunes work looks excellent,” Commission Chair Greg Hansen said in the news release. “Staff has done a wonderful job keeping all of the moving parts that make up this project on target.”
