Close

All Projects

Full Project List

Navarre Beach – Beach Berm & Dune Restoration

Client: Santa Rosa County

Areas of Expertise: Coastal Planning, Engineering & Restoration

This beach restoration project was (a) initially constructed in 2006, and (b) re-nourished in 2016 – both as designed by and permitted by Coastal Tech-GEC. Initial construction entailed placement of 2.9 Mcy of sand over 4.1 miles of beach; re-nourishment in  2016 included placement of 1.35 Mcy of sand; both projects employed an offshore borrow area for which Coastal Tech-GEC (a) performed offshore geotechnical investigations in 2002, and (b) identified the borrow area with nearly pure quartz “sugar” sand – per local and State standards.

After years of storm events that over-washed the barrier island, the project design was developed to re-establish (a) the dune as a critical storm protection feature, and (b) recreational economic benefits – including 0.7 miles of beach and dune at the Navarre Beach State Park. The Florida Department of Environmental Protection’s Bureau of Beaches and Coastal Systems co-sponsored the project with Santa Rosa County. This project won an American Shore and Beach Preservation Association (ASBPA) 2010 “Best Restored Beach” award.

After the initial 2002 Feasibility Study and in concert with the initial Design Phase, Coastal Tech-GEC utilized REFDIF to model the background and potential storm wave climates in the project area. The GENESIS shoreline model was successfully calibrated and verified with historical data and then used to simulate shoreline changes and predict overall performance. Specifically, the model was used in a classic “what if” mode to evaluate the performance of the proposed beach fill under differing design assumptions about how much and where to place the advanced maintenance fill volume. The final design employed non-uniform “weighting” of the advanced fill.  

In 2008, Hurricanes Gustav and Ike impacted Navarre Beach with storm surge and wave runup reaching up to +12 to +14 feet NAVD and minor overtopping of the dune feature. The project performed as designed and protected the upland structures from wave damage. However, the storm waves exacerbated end losses from the fill and necessitated an interim dune restoration effort in 2010 to replace approximately 12,000 cubic yards within the western-portion of the project. Coastal Tech-GEC identified losses and provided design, permitting, and construction phase services for a FEMA funded truck-haul event to restore this small area and keep the overall project on track for its scheduled maintenance.

Subsequent to the initial construction and 2010 repair with FEMA funding, the Project area was again impacted by Tropical Storm Debby and Hurricane Isaac – which led to $2.3M of FEMA funding for storm repairs employed with the first re-nourishment event completed in July 2016.  During the 2016 construction, Coastal Tech-GEC provided an on-site resident-engineer to monitor construction, communicate with stakeholders, and check for compliance with the Contract Documents. As part of the 2016 re-nourishment, Coastal Tech-GEC’s Technical Specifications required relocation trawling of marine turtles within the borrow area – even though not required by the permits; over 130 turtles were relocated with no “take” – allowing the 2016 construction to be completed smoothly and largely without interruption.

 

Year Completed:  2016 (re-nourishment)

Total Fees:  $1.6M (2012 to 2016 – including Monitoring)

 Total Cost:  Estimated:  $15.8M     

                       Actual:  $12.9M

Project Completion Date:      Actual:  June 27, 2016      

                                                     Proposed:  June 7, 2016

(Substantial completion of construction – extended by weather delays)