A massive local beach restoration project is now officially over.
City leaders gathered on the beach Wednesday to announce the monthslong project was finished.
First it was Matthew and then Irma. Both hurricanes pounded Northeast Florida beaches leaving a mess in their wake.
“A lot of people wondered when we were going to get it done and it was done last night,” said Jax Beach Mayor Charlie Latham.
Last year our area was spared a major storm allowing beach cities to catch up on restoration.
About eight miles of beach are now renourished, including the dunes which were nearly decimated following two hurricanes.
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The protective layer is now back to where it needs to be and it’s a relief for locals like Clark McCue.
“It’s great, it used to have quite a bit of slope to it when it was washed out so it’s nice to see it all back in almost a level piece,” said McCue.
The project was mostly federally funded but about $1.7 million in city dollars went for the dunes.
Action News Jax was there in October when crews began the painstaking process of pumping more sand to areas affected by erosion, a total of 880,000 cubic yards of sand were spread along the shore.
“They’ve done a lot work out here it looks great they did a good job,” said McCue.
The next step is to finish fixing the Jax Beach Pier, Mayor Latham said construction on the pier will begin in April.
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