COCOA BEACH, Fla. – Cocoa Beach — the Space Coast’s premier tourism spot — soon will see new sands, dredged up and pumped in from shoals several miles offshore of Cape Canaveral.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will begin placing the new sand on the so-called North Reach section of its Brevard County Shore Protection Project “on or about March 20,” News 6 partner Florida Today reports.
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The effort will put about 465,000 cubic yards of sand on the southern four miles of the 9.8-mile long North Reach shoreline, from Patrick Space Force Base to North Second Street in Cocoa Beach.
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“Sections of beach will be marked off for public and personnel safety, and the temporary pipeline will be marked with buoys to alert boaters,” David Ruderman, a Corps spokesman in Jacksonville, said via email.
The work is being done under a $10.6 million contract awarded in September 2020 to Great Lakes Dredge and Dock Co. LLC.
Earlier this year, Patrick got about 450,000 cubic yards of sand on its beaches.
The Corps and another contractor also are widening Brevard County’s South Reach project area, which spans from Flug Avenue Indialantic, southward 3.8 miles to Spessard Holland Park. That estimated $15 million project is expected to be completed by April 30, county officials say, when beach widening projects must stop to prevent disrupting endangered and threatened sea turtle nesting.
The Cocoa Beach project, also expected to be complete by April 30, is the latest in a series of periodic federal beach renourishments that began in 2000. Subsequent beach replenishments were undertaken in 2005 and 2014. The shore protection project is entirely funded by the federal government.
The source sand for the Cocoa Beach project will be dredged from Canaveral Shoals, about five miles offshore of Cape Canaveral. A hopper dredge will deliver the sand directly to the beach via a temporary pipeline.
The construction calls for the beach to be initially widened by about 60 feet.
For a weekly beach construction update, call 321-637-5374.
For information about local beach projects
- See www.brevardfl.gov/NaturalResources/Beaches/RestorationProjects for the history of Brevard County shore protection projects.
- For information about Corps projects, visit www.saj.usace.army.mil.