Ocean Ridge prepares for own blast of sand
Jim and Ann Frank, visiting from Houston, look on as dredging begins Jan. 29 on the north end of Delray Beach. The $19.2 million beach renourishment project will restore 2.65 miles of coastline. Photos by Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star
By John Pacenti
“Delray Dave” has seen plenty of beach restorations during his 40 years of watching the sand ebb and flow while visiting the city's beach volleyball courts.
Dave Posta, a local volleyball legend, spoke on Jan. 26 within feet of heavy equipment prepared to pump sand back onto Delray Beach for $19.2 million.
Just to the north, Ocean Ridge was also gearing up for its $9.4 million beach restoration project with a contract awarded and surveying commenced.
The long-term fate of the beach is ultimately “up to God and Mother Nature,” said Posta, a former pro volleyball player who is now a coach. “It could go away right away.”
Posta recalled past projects where the sand washed away in as little as a month and others that held for a couple of years. He noted one dredging about a decade ago that vanished after a single storm, and earlier major projects in the 1990s and 2000s that transformed the beach enough to support dozens of volleyball courts and pro tournaments.
People who haven’t experienced a beach renourishment need to know it’s a massive project, he said.
“The pipes run all the way up and down the whole beach,” he said. “They literally have to build these little ladders for people to get over them.”
In the meantime, just off Casuarina Road, the large pipes, a bulldozer and generators were sitting in wait until they were moved north up the coast about a half-mile. There they were hooked up to a “subline” already in the water that will go out to a barge taking sand from a borrow pit, said a Great Lakes Dredge and Dock Company worker keeping sentinel.
Though he wouldn’t give his name, the worker said that he had to make sure kids don’t climb on the pipes or homeless people don’t find shelter in them. The worker, though, was living it up with an umbrella and chair in the sun, knowing the hard work was just a few days away.
“This is unbelievable,” he said. “Our last job was in New Jersey and when we left it was 12 degrees with the wind. We get down here, it’s 65 degrees.”
The crew typically works seven days a week, 12 hours a day, he said.
The barge temporarily returned to port in West Palm Beach at the beginning of February due to rough seas from high winds brought by the recent cold front, but it was expected to return after a few days.
Gavin Koerth, a survey rodman working with Great Lakes Dredge and Dock Company, assists a survey at the north end of Delray Beach prior to the project.
Here comes the sand
There will be 1.3 million cubic yards of sand poured on the beach. To put that in perspective, that is enough sand to cover 200 football fields a yard deep, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has said.
The beach is expected to be widened by about 250 feet with the coverage area stretching from the city's border with Gulf Stream to south of Atlantic Dunes Park. The completion deadline is April 30.
“We’re making every effort to get it completed before the onset of turtle nesting season,” said Delray Beach Public Works Director Missie Barletto.
The federal government pitched in $13 million of the $19.2 million through the Fiscal 2025 Disaster Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act. The city has allocated $5.4 million for the project.
The critical erosion to Delray Beach occurred during the 2022 hurricane season with storms Nicole and Ian. Though only a Category 1 storm that made landfall near Vero Beach, Nicole’s massive size and long duration created a relentless storm surge and pounding waves that battered Florida’s east coast. Ian created a compounding effect.
Some areas on the beach, such as near the pavilion, have eroded to only a few feet.
Barletto reassured residents and visitors that the beach will remain open during the restoration, though portions will be temporarily closed for active work. She urged beachgoers to use alternative access points around active work areas.
Ocean Ridge preparations
To the north in Ocean Ridge, information was scarce. Town Manager Michelle Heiser said she only knew that surveying was being done in January.
According to the Dredging Today news outlet, Weeks Marine from Covington, Louisiana, has won a $9.4 million firm-fixed-price contract for the U.S. Army Corps project. Roughly, 500,000 cubic yards of sand will be placed on the beach just south of the Boynton Inlet to about Thompson Street.
Like the Delray Beach project, Ocean Ridge aims to be done with its restoration by May so as not to affect the peak of turtle season.
Get your shells here
Barletto noted a local perk that has accompanied past dredging work: crews often filter shells and lay out piles for the public to search.
“In the past, they’ve kind of laid those out in an area for shell hunters to go through and see what they can find,” she said, adding that the city asked Great Lakes if it would repeat that public service for this project.
Back with Delray Dave, he said the restoration project will affect the posts that hold up the volleyball nets.
“See what we’re going to run into now, they’re gonna build the sand up 3, 4 feet. We don’t have 3, 4 feet more on our pole. So we’re gonna have to pull the poles out, but we are aware of that,” he said.
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