| Hurricane Nicole coverage: Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Damage assessment, Part I | Damage assessment, Part II | A1A Reopens |
It’s not quite as impressive as building the 1,600 miles of the Alaska Highway in 244 days, but the repairs of 4.8 miles of State Road A1A in three segments ravaged by Hurricane Nicole is not a small achievement: the road reopened to traffic in both directions Saturday evening just four days after the storm made the road impassable. Contractors were already at work dumping sand even as Nicole was lashing at the coast on Thursday.
“This is a completely unheard of and amazing coordination of manpower and equipment the scale I have never seen from FDOT ever,” Flagler Beach City Commissioner Eric Cooley said. “This is huge and unprecedented. We as a city need to bring all involved to Thursday’s meeting and thank them.”
The road is the responsibility of the Florida Department of Transportation, which contracted with P&S Paving and Halifax Paving of Daytona Beach to conduct the emergency repairs. According to DOT, 600 truckloads brought in nearly 11,000 cubic yards of sand to fill in gaping carveouts in the road and reinforce damaged shoulders.
County officials credited Christine Barone, the FDOT District 5 operations engineer, for getting it done. “She’s unbelievable,” County Attorney Al Hadeed said on Thursday while standing on A1A near trucks dumping sand, and after completing an evaluation tour of the coastline with County Engineer Faith al-Khatib. “They have been an amazing team to work with and they mobilized all the resources they can mobilize to get it done,” al-Khatib said. (See: “Nicole’s Damage to A1A ‘Much Worse’ Than Matthew, Over Longer Stretch; Parts of Flagler Beach Flood.”)
DOT has not provided the dollar figures for the emergency contracts. But a two-week project by the agency just before the storm, dropping truckloads of sand south of the Flagler Beach water tower in hopes of reinforcing the road shoulder, had cost $125 a cubic yard, according to al-Khatib. That would put the cost of the post-Nicole sands at around $1.3 million. (DOT did not provide information requested on Nov. 4 about the pre-Nicole sand operation.) Nicole washed that sand entirely.
The three stretches of road that saw emergency repairs were:
- South 7th to South 28th Street: 2.5 miles.
- South Central Avenue in Flagler Beach to Highbridge Road in Volusia County: 1.9 miles.
- Wisteria Drive to Sunny Beach Drive in Ormond by the Sea: 0.4 mile.
According to DOT’s latest data, the stretch of A1A from State Road 100 to South 14th Street has an average daily traffic load of 9,200 vehicles, falling to 5,000 daily vehicles for the stretch between South 14th and Gamble Rogers State Recreation Area and to the county line. (For comparison’s sake, I-95 in Flagler has a daily average of just under 100,000 vehicles, and U.S. 1 is in the range of 12,000 vehicles per day.) A1A a vital artery for Flagler Beach businesses–motels, restaurants, shops–and for its tourism.
The emergency repairs are only temporary, and are unlikely to hold the road even through mild storms or strong high tide events. “Permanent repairs will begin as soon as emergency repairs are completed,” a DOT spokesperson said. The scope, design and cost of those repairs are not known.
The method mirrors DOT’s approach in the aftermath of Hurricane Matthew, which shredded a 1.5-mile segment of A1A in 2016, from South 9th Street to South 22nd. The transportation department hired Halifax Paving to cobble the road back together through emergency repairs, with a $4 million, 45-day contract. Halifax got the job done in two weeks, lured by an extra $1 million bonus if it did so, and giving then-Gov. Rick Scott a chance to boast about reopening the road ahead of schedule.
What DOT then referred to as “permanent” repairs–a term that factually cannot apply to any work on State Road A1A for more than a few years–was conducted over 300 days on the 1.5-mile segment. It was redesigned with a median and more rocks were dropped below the road’s shoulder in a $22.4 million project that also included building a sea wall at the north end of town. The rebuilding project was carried out just as Flagler County was carrying out its own, $20 million dune-reconstruction on 11 miles of shoreline, from the north end of the county down to Beverly Beach.
Between the state’s and the county’s projects, coastal protection had cost nearly $50 million to repair the damages of Hurricane Matthew. That money’s efforts have now mostly washed away.
Even before Hurricane Ian struck, the county’s replenished sands were largely gone, and further, damaging erosion was taking place even without storms striking, as was the case just north of the pier in July and August. The erosion was so striking that the Flagler Beach City Commission called an emergency meeting, though little was accomplished as a result. (See: “Massive Erosion Strikes North and South of Pier; Flagler Beach Commission Calls Emergency Meeting” and “‘Disturbing’ Beach Erosion Near Pier Meets Split and Muddled Response from Flagler Beach Commission.”)
Even then, a substantial dune shelf of some 25 feet remained along the boardwalk north of the pier. Ian removed that, as it removed remaining dunes up and down the coast to an unprecedented degree, leaving the shoreline extremely vulnerable to destruction. (See: “Catastrophic Loss: Dunes All But Gone Along Flagler’s 18-Mile Shore, Leaving A1A and Properties Dangerously Exposed.”)
Nicole has since dug further into the road bed north of the pier, which was not touched by the latest emergency repairs and remains vulnerable to collapse.
As had his predecessor, Gov. Ron DeSantis was all boasts after DOT reopened A1A Saturday. After touring Volusia’s damage, he had stopped locally to view the damage in Flagler County in a brief late-afternoon swing on Friday afternoon with Rep. Paul Renner and Kevin Guthrie, the director of Florida’s emergency management division. (Guthrie is the keynote speaker at Flagler Tiger Bay’s November 16 lunch at Channel Side in Palm Coast.)
The latest emergency repairs do not address the vulnerabilities to homes and the road in general. (See: “Devastation on Flagler’s Coastline: Houses and Roadbeds Hanging on Sand Cliffs, Vanished Dunes, Yards Turned Beach.”) The state and the county are aware. A beach-management study is sitting on county desks, awaiting action. The Flagler County Commission, which has not responded to the last years’ disappearance of dunes with the sort of urgency residents might expect, has yet to adopt a feasible long-term plan with adequate financing. (See: “Study: Flagler’s Beaches Are Eroding Critically, and Will Cost County Alone $5 to $13 Million a Year to Slow.”)
But for now, and until the next storm, A1A is reopened again, to the city’s and county’s delight.
“I just drove from my office straight down A1A all the way down to High Bridge Road without interruption,” Flagler Beach attorney Scott Spradley said Saturday evening. “I have no idea how DOT did that. But hats off to the effort.”
Below is county drone footage of the damaged shoreline as DOT was repairing the road.
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Corey says
It’s great to see everyone coming together and getting the job done, which I thank everyone for all their hard work to make this happen, great appreciated!
This is a good example of what we need in government local and state. If everyone would just keep their mouths closed and put their beliefs to the voting booth and voice their option that way we wouldn’t have all the BS like we have today going on in our country. Just think about it and maybe it will open your eyes.
I hope my analogy make sense with this article. Thanks again for everyone’s effort to get A1A and Flagler Beach restored!
pete says
That road is just a money pit, millions and billions have been spent. If all the money spent was spent right you would have one hell of a highway. What a joke It’s just like burning it, don’t know about all of you but i work to hard to just burn mine.
EM South says
Please stop throwing taxpayer dollars at this doomed stretch. Property owners in the area have not paid in 1/10000th of the money already spent trying to save this strip of beach, road, and property. Well past time for managed retreat.
Jimbo99 says
Pretty amazing, but without a road, the rest of it doesn’t happen. 17 days to the end of the hurricane season. Some of the footage of DB Shores and the houses that teeter on collapsing onto what’s left of the shoreline in between high & low tides is very hard to fathom regardless of whether you grew up your whole life there or not. Dunlawton to Wilbur By the Sea/Ponce Inlet, housing that should be condemned, most likely should never be rebuilt. But they will and next storms will be more of the same devastation & cost.
joe says
SOME ONE GOT RICH
Foresee says
Climate change is real. Next year 22,000 cubic yards of sand a few times a year… and after that?
Ray says
Just get Bechtel engineers on this mess. They will fix it for many years to come. They designed the Hoover Dam, the Golden Gate Bridge and are still doing projects around the world. It is unbelievable how much they have done for this world!
John W says
How do you know they are saving it just for homeowners?
The road is designate a Scenic & Historic Coastal Highway and an All American Road – 1 of 2 in Florida. Maybe something worth keeping.
It’s also a major source of tax dollars to the county with bringing visitors to the beaches an patronizing the businesses along Ocean Ave.
Carolamae says
Can anyone provide photos or updates about North 12th to North 16th along A1A?
Thank you one & all.
Bill D says
Does P & S Paving have an exclusive contract with the State and the County ? They seem to be the only contractors doing business local government uses.
Sand T. Claws says
Build a concrete wall 80 feet high along the Beach line. Use heavy duty Plexiglas panels so everyone can see the ocean thru the wall.
Now bulldoze every building along A1A. Raise the level of ground 50 feet higher then it is now. Build businesses with STILTS and stairs along the commercial sections. DO NOT allow any houses or condo’s along that stretch.
That should keep things peaceful for probably another 3 years. Once the hurricanes become stronger and more intense because of climate change, everyone can just move the hell off the barrier island. After this one, everybody who owns a house in Flagler Beach should RUSH to sell it and get what you can before the Government decides to TAKE IT from you.
Florida Park Dr Next?? says
Wow 4 days, can this same crew be hired to replace whoever cannot seem to be able to fix Florida Park Drive after how many months? How are we supposed to enjoy our new splash pad if we cannot even get to it? Oh, wait… Nevermind
James says
We do appreciate those that patched the road once again, but when another storm comes in, it will be back to the same again. It is a complete waste of money and it needs to be fixed for good and stop with throwing money away. FB Officials wake up to reality.
The Geode says
Rinse and repeat. Nature is undefeated and will win again…
Denali says
Someone needs to fact check themselves. Bechtel did not design either of the project you mention.
Hoover Dam: Frank Crowe was the design engineer with Henry J. Kaiser and Gordon Kaufmann as the architects. None of the three worked for Bechtel. Bechtel was a 15% partner in the joint venture known as Six Companies which received the construction contract for the project. They were a part of the construction group but not the designers.
Golden Gate Bridge: The Chief Engineer was Joseph Strauss assisted by Leon S. Moisseiff and Charles A. Ellis. Again, none of these three worked for Bechtel. I have never heard anyone say that Bechtel had anything to do with the bridge and cannot find any reference to them being involved. Too bad as they were/are based in San Francisco. The main contractor was McClintic-Marshall Corporation, a subsidiary of Bethlehem Steel Corporation.
Fjb says
Why use sand when it’s just going to get washed away again? I’m not a road engineer or anything but I feel like clay might be a better option…
Ray says
I did not say Design! I stated help Engineered the structures. I have been to both, and their name is on the plaques. I know who built them. I have watched many documentaries on the building of the USA.
Laurel says
Fjb: Clay mixes too easily with water, would silt up terribly and wash away. It would clog the gills of sea life. Keep figuring though, new ideas are important.
Ray says
Denali
I understand what have looked up. I worked for Bechtel twice, and I know for a fact that they were involved. Bechtel is one of the best engineering contractors in the world!
I will not reply again.
Adam Friedland says
Attacks like this on Our Beach and The Our Pier should have an FBI investigation .. this happens again and again and it seems like no one is trying to figure out who is responsible
Chuck Salvo says
We have been in a battle for years trying to get 100% agreement on easements for the beach nourishment. This was held up by one family and an unreasonable request by the government for 100% compliance. We can’t find an answer on the current status on eminent domain for that one family. First can we get action from our leaders on securing the final easement. Leaders can then work on a plan with DOT and Army Corp on a better solution for existing A1A including a sea wall. Talk of moving the road to South Central would be tied up in legal battles forever. We can’t get eminent domain on one family, imagine now having to obtain easements on all the properties on South Central.
Leaders, please do not spend more an more dollars on studies that have already been done. Build a sea wall, nourish and expand the dunes. On top of that beautify the boardwalk and new pier and bring a new and improved Flagler Beach to our residents!
Denali says
Reply or not, your choice.
Your original statement; “They designed the Hoover Dam, the Golden Gate Bridge”. You cannot change that fact, unless we are not to believe our lying eyes. Please read your post.
Bechtel was a contractor on the Hoover Dam, a fact I stated above. They were part of a consortium know as the Six Companies; Morrison-Knudsen Co., Utah Construction Co., J. F. Shea Co., Pacific Bridge Co., MacDonald & Kahn Ltd. and a joint venture of W. A. Bechtel Co., Henry J. Kaiser, and Warren Brothers. I have previously stated the names of the engineers (designers).
As for the Golden Gate Bridge, the engineering group included:
Chief engineer – Joseph B. Strauss
Principal assistant engineer – Clifford E. Paine
Resident engineer – Russell Cone
Assistant engineer – Charles Clarahan Jr., Dwight N. Wetherell
Consulting engineer – O.H. Ammann, Charles Derleth Jr., Leon S. Moisseiff
Consulting traffic engineer – Sydney W. Taylor, Jr.
Consulting architect – Irving F. Morrow
Consulting geologist – Andrew C. Lawson, Allan E. Sedgwick
The contractors included:
Foundations – Pacific Bridge Company
Anchorages – Barrett & Hilp
Structural steel – Main span – Bethlehem Steel Company Incorporated (subsidiary McClintic-Marshall Construction Co)
Approach steel – J.H. Pomeroy & Company Incorporated – Raymond Concrete Pile Company
Cables – John A. Roebling’s Sons Company
Electrical work – Alta Electric and Mechanical Company Incorporated
Bridge deck – Pacific Bridge Company
Presidio Approach Roads and Viaducts – Easton & Smith
Toll Plaza – Barrett & Hilp
Please go to https://readtheplaque.com/plaque/the-golden-gate-bridge for more detail.
I do not see any mention of Bechtel in these names. If you have evidence to the contrary please provide same. Your anecdotal stories are quaint but not documented. Perhaps they were involved in one of the many retrofit/repair projects over the years?
For the record, I have not spoken ill of Bechtel and hold them in the highest respect earned by over twenty years of working with them in Alaska. Next thing you’ll be telling us they designed and built Sears Tower.
Ray says
Denali, yes, I made a typo mistake with the They designed the Hoover Dam, and the Golden Gate Bridge. But they were involved. The 3 Stooges Built the Sears Tower. I thought you might want to know that info?
I don’t know what you did in Alaska. But that is a very long time there!
I bet you are very tough guy to have been through 20 years of Alaska.
Your name now makes sense.
Take Care
The Geode says
Let it go, Ray. You’ve been “check-mated” with your own statements…