Nassau County residents and visitors will begin seeing construction equipment and dredging pipes on Fernandina Beach around the first week of January in preparation for the next scheduled maintenance dredging of U.S. Naval Station Kings Bay and sand placement at the beach which will get underway in mid-February.
The awarded beach placement area starts near New York Avenue and will go as far south as near Sadler Road. The Corps estimates the contractor will place about 740,000 cubic yards of sand at Fernandina Beach.
The contractor will also disperse about 1,020,000 cubic yards of non-beach compatible material between the approved nearshore disposal area and an offshore disposal site.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Jacksonville District, awarded this $32,859,630.00 contract to the Dutra Group for the maintenance dredging of U.S. Naval Station Kings Bay and sand placement at Fernandina Beach.
Sand will be placed on critically eroded portions of Fernandina Beach in areas not routinely renourished. Using sand dredged from the Kings Bay Entrance Channel on Fernandina Beach will result in an overall cost savings of approximately $13.5 million.
The project includes maintenance dredging of the entrance channel and parts of the inner channel, returning the project to its authorized depths. It also includes escarpment removal at Fort Clinch State Park and beneficial placement of beach compatible sand in the northern portion of Fernandina Beach in Nassau County.
Dredging will end before March 31, which is the end of the environmental turtle window allowing hopper dredging.