Army Corps Project in Flagler Beach Doubles to $33 Million as Dune Repair Costs Pile Up Faster Than Sand

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineer’s project to rebuild 2.6 miles of dunes along the south shore of Flagler Beach was to cost $17 million when it was first approved by Congress in 2017. It is now a $33 million project, with Flagler County responsible for $11.3 million of that.

The money has been secured. So have the perpetual easements allowing for the work on private property. So have the dates: The bids for the project would be opened next February. Construction would start in May 2024, and complete the work in January 2025.




The only questions remaining are to what extent and with how much money the Corps and the county will be able to extend the project north and south of the 2.6 miles. The broadest extension would raise the total cost to $42 million, with Flagler responsible for $28 million of that, keeping in mind that Flagler County or Flagler Beach taxpayers themselves are not going to see any difference on their tax bills. The county is securing its share through state and federal sources–the Department of Environmental Protection, the Department of transportation, the Federal Emergency Management Administration, and special allocations by the legislature.

The county secured $17 million from the legislature last year. It is anticipating possibly as much by the time lawmakers finish their work this week.

Jason Harrah, the project manager for Flagler’s Army Corps renourishment since its inception in 2003, and Faith al-Khatib, the county engineer whose wizardry keeps securing beach-repair grant dollars by the tens of millions, sparing county and city taxpayers additional burdens, provided a 360-degree update to the Flagler County Commission on beach repairs. They discussed not just the Army Corps project, but how it fits along with–and influences–county-led dune-repair projects on the remaining miles of the county’s shoreline. Flagler County has 18 miles of shoreline in all, some of it under state jurisdiction because it fronts two state parks or recreation areas.

The more sand the county is able to dump on the Corps project’s flanks, north and south of it, the better it will be for the durability of the Corps project, and vice versa. As matters stand today, it appears the county may be able to stretch the federal projects enough to cover the entire south side of Flagler Beach. The cost Flagler County will have to finance–again, with state grants–will be $17 million.




“It will be a great opportunity for us to combine these two projects,” al-Khatib said, “we have the Corps of Engineers project, 2.6 miles, north and south of the project, 2.4 miles. Now we are combining these two projects.” She said the county has secured $14 million from the state Department of Transportation. The county still has a $2.4 million shortfall, with word from DOT that it will seek to find the additional funding. “So it looks really very promising.”

The Army Corps project has a 65-35 cost sharing formula for the initial construction. But it’s 50-50 in subsequent renourishments. The beach will have a 40 to 60-foot berm (the area where beach-goers hang out), extending underwater for a grand total of 110 feet of berm. “So that’s a really robust project,” Harrah said. “The smaller band-aid projects work but these projects are very, very robust. They’re much bigger projects, and we build so much fill to try to get that seven, eight, nine years down the road will we have to come back.” Walk-overs will be either repaired–by the city or the property owners, not by the Corps–or torn out before the project begins.

A staging area for the Corps’ contractor will be at the foot of the Flagler Beach water tower. But the Corps will now have to build a beach–build its own staging area–to enable the work, because the sliver has been eroded too far inland.

That still leaves key parts of Flagler County’s beach protection to be decided for the remaining miles, especially to what extent the county will be willing to rebuild dunes. Currently it is dumping sand along the shore north of Flagler Beach on an emergency basis. But that means very skinny, very short-lived dunes of 6 cubic yards per foot, compared to the 90 cubic yards per foot that the Army Corps will build. Skinny dunes don’t last. (The county conducted one emergency project, restoring 11.4 miles of dunes in 2018 and 2019. The rebuilt dunes provided some protection, but by last fall those dunes were gone, even before the season’s hurricane struck.)

Al-Khatib wants the commission to set aside a workshop to decide how it will proceed in the future.




The presentation was both sobering and encouraging. Sobering, because it outlined the immense sums of dollars getting spent on mere emergency maintenance of dunes that will soon be eroded again (outside of the Corps area, which is expected to be sturdier). But also encouraging, because Flagler County has managed to keep the flow of state and federal dollars going its way.

The presentation also sought to merge, as much as possible, the importance of both the Corps project and the county’s projects.

The study for the federal project was started in 2003. It initially encompassed all 18 miles of coastline. The Corps determined that only 2.6 miles of shoreline fit the criteria for a renourishment project. In 2017 the Department for Transportation granted Flagler County $6.6 million as its local match for what was then a $17 million project. The balance was assumed by the federal government. When the Army Corps project was initially conceived, it was to rebuild dunes at a rate of 44 cubic yards of sand per food. The severe erosion of the last half dozen years has now doubled that need, to 90 cubic yards of sand per foot, or 1.3 million cubic yards.

That still left the majority of Flagler’s shore increasingly vulnerable, and annually eroded wither by hurricanes or strong storms and tides. The county initiated its beach management study in 2019, which provided six alternatives, leaving it to the County Commission to pick one. It still hasn’t.

“We have to decide, do we want to do a dredging operation or keep doing trucking?” al-Khatib said. “The trucking will be good for emergency projects and for just dumping emergency sand for protection. But for a long term plan to protect and to restore our dunes and beaches, we need to do a dredging operation, and my understanding on my board, they are agreeing on that approach.” She does not favor more trucking, which is costing between $65 and $70 per cubic yard, tearing up roads and interfering with traffic. Dredging would cost $22 per cubic yard, al-Khatib said. There would be no road damage or traffic issues.




But a long-term, comprehensive funding plan remains elusive even as other pieces of the puzzle are being put in place, such as the expansion of the borrow pit offshore, from where all the new sand will be dredged in. So serious questions remain. For example: should the county commission lead the rebuilding across all miles of beaches? Should the county create a tax district? Should the county assume responsibility for Flagler Beach’s coastline, outside of the Corps boundaries? “We have been doing great job so far, reacting,” al-Khatib said.

The county has in the past attempted to punt some of the responsibility back to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers yet again, since that option is open. The county sent a letter in January, requesting yet another Corps of Engineers study to spread the Corps boundaries further north or south. That study alone would cost $3 million, requiring a local match of $1.5 million. (The county has asked for a fee waiver. It has not heard back whether that match will be waived.)

Either way, it’s a long shot, and risks serving as a mask for the county’s own immediate responsibilities. “You’re competing with a lot of different projects throughout the United States. The Assistant Secretary of the Army at the Pentagon gets about this many requests each year,” Harrah said, mimicking a stack two feet tall, then, narrowing his two hands to within inches, “and the budget is about that much each year for new studies.”

The county has to secure easements along much of those 12 miles, the way it did for the 2.6 miles of shoreline along the Corps project. Those 2.6 miles took three years. It was only last month that the last hold-out signed on. “We need to come up with a way to have the permission from the community to come in, get the grant and start restoring the dunes and the beaches to protect their properties, and of course our residents,” al-Khatib said.

The county has been anything but idle. A map of the county’s shoreline overlaid with scheduled or completed emergency and Army Corps dune reparations shows how almost every stretch of beach will get some form of dune restoration. A 1.5-mile stretch at the north end of the county, from MalaCompra Road to Washington Oaks Gardens State Park, was completed in late March for $3.6 million, dumping 50,000 cubic yards of sand. The project was paid for by the Federal Emergency Management Administration and state dollars. That area includes the shore in front of Sea Colony. A 075-mile stretch in front of Washington Oaks was also repaired for $1.8 million,

Repairs along 1.5 miles of Painter’s Hill are ongoing, with 50,000 cubic yards of sand at a cost of $3.8 million. High tides are impeding the work, because erosion has all but eliminated the high-tide beach. Private homes along that stretch are now on a cliff, some of their foundations exposed by erosion, some of their walkovers collapsed. Residents collectively have applied to build a permit and have gotten permission to do so. The county has been helping the property owners “to move these permits as soon as possible,” al-Khatib said.




Two stretches, in Marineland and in the Hammock, are getting reparations starting June 1. A stretch in front of Hammock Dunes is scheduled to be repaired starting June 15. A 1.5-mile stretch around Varn Park will dump 50,000 cubic yards or $3.5 million in state dollars. The date may be delayed for lack of construction easements from property owners along the way.

Further north, a FEMA-eligible project will dump 134,000 cubic yards of sand along 4.9 miles of beach, from MalaCompra Road to the River-to-Sea Preserve. The approximately $12 million cost has not yet been approved, but the county is close, al-Khatib said.

“This slide shows you at this time, we have at least a $80 million available for us to restore our dunes,” al-Khatib said. She listed the numerous local, state and federal agencies that combined to provide the money, which includes $15 million for emergency projects.

“As you know it’s a dynamic system. Today we dump some sand, tomorrow some of it will erode, it will go away. We have no option but to provide a protection for our residents. So we have to do it. All the funding I mentioned, we brought it to Flagler County. It is only eligible for these kinds of activities. Flagler County, if they don’t work hard and get that money and bring it to protect our residents, other communities can take it and use it and help other residents in that area.”