The third major Fort Pierce shore nourishment project in nearly four years began Tuesday, March 10, at beaches near Jetty Park torn apart by rising sea levels.
Approximately 1.3 miles of shoreline between Jetty Park and South Beach will receive “slightly above $15 million” in beach nutrition from now until September, according to J.P. Rebello, a representative of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Jacksonville District. Federal funding will pay for “close to $11.7 million” of the project.
Contractors from Manson Construction will install nearly 400,000 cubic yards of new sand to beaches directly south of the Fort Pierce Inlet, Rebello added in a March 5 email.
As with other beach nourishment projects throughout South Hutchinson Island and Florida, sand will be dredged from a source deemed appropriate by state law and mineralogical studies from the Army Corps and U.S. Geological Survey.
In this case, Manson will source the sand from the Capron Shoal found over 4 miles southeast in the Atlantic in use since 1999, Army Corps records show.
State and federal stipulations require new sand “be similar in color, grain size distribution, and mineralogy to the native beach, with specific limitations on fine-grained material (i.e. silt, clay) and gravel,” Rebello wrote.
The latest beach nourishment project in Jetty Park and South Beach began after Fort Pierce declared a nine-day state of emergency there between Feb. 11-20.
Local contractors dumped “approximately 11,000” cubic yards of sand in dunes to counter erosion near Jetty Park, according to St. Lucie County communications director Erick Gill. The “stop-gap” project cost the county $488,953.88.
Sea rise and stronger tides ate away at tourist beaches that have sustained further damage since Hurricanes Ian and Nicole struck the area in late 2022. The backyards of shorefront home and businesses along State Road A1A have gradually become more vulnerable to damage from ocean activity.
“As these areas are very close to the A1A corridor,” Gill wrote, “the need for protecting these areas against future storm events and the upcoming hurricane season is elevated. The recent emergency efforts and the (current) federal beach project (intend) to abate the possibility of erosion breaching the dune.”
Contractors from Manson – a Seattle-based construction firm known for many beach nourishment projects throughout the U.S. – have the Fort Pierce project along with a $14.7 million dredging at Dollman Beach, 14 miles south.
That restoration will use nearly 300,000 cubic yards of sand, fully paid for with federal funds, to repair 3.3 miles of shores near condo complexes near the St. Lucie/Martin county line until the end of June, according to Rebello.
Beach nourishment in Fort Pierce stretches back well before Hurricanes Ian and Nicole tore through Jetty Park and South Beach.
Shores in the area have received over 6.7 million cubic yards of new sand from 13 planned nourishment projects since 1980, according to a May 2025 Army Corps info sheet. The projects, which cost nearly $91.5 million in total, build upon fortifications the Army Corps built there in 1971.
The beaches took on approximately 2.2 million cubic yards of sand between 1999 and 2005 before a federal review limited nourishment projects to a two-year waiting period between dredging.
It would take almost two decades for erosion there, not aided by ocean current adversely colliding with the Fort Pierce Inlet, to hemorrhage after Hurricanes Ian and Nicole swept through the state in 2022. Nicole, in particular, swept an “estimated 266,000 cubic yards” away from the site, the Army Corps info sheet said.
The latest project received “two bids” $10 million over the “awardable range” advertised before Manson was hired, the data sheet said. It added the current dredging was originally expected to finish by the end of this May.