I attended the IRC Beach and Shores Preservation Advisory Committee monthly meeting yesterday and learned that dune sand restoration will begin around Dec. 1, 2023. This project area reaches from north of Treasure Shores Beach south to Turtle Trail Beach. This also includes Golden Sands Beach, Wabasso Beach and Sea Grape Beach or about 4.6 miles north and 2 miles south of Wabasso Beach. All of Summerplace along the seawall is part of the project.
This project is funded by the State, Federal and County Governments in partnership and is intended to replace dunes washed away by last years hurricanes Ian and Nicole. Because it is a dune only restoration, and the seawall along Summerplace has no dune, we do not yet now how much if any sand will actually be placed along the seawall itself.
The project will work north to south beginning Dec. 1, 2023 to April 30, 2024. Sequential closing of the beaches noted above will begin Nov. 27 with the closing of Treasure Shores Beach. Timing of the closing of the other beaches will be made public at a future date.
So, about 200 trucks a day will be traveling up and down A1A through our community starting soon.
Please let me now of any issues regarding these trucks. I have the number of the resource manager for the County who oversees this project. I expressed our community concern to the group for the noise created by downshifting instead of braking going south on A1A , the acceleration noise after making the turn from road 510 north on to A1A and speed these trucks have traveled at in the past. He assured me that this is a new contractor with good credentials and he will be responsive to concerns raised from the project, including identifying trucks that violate speed and braking rules, banning them from the project – they are almost all private hauling contractors – and reporting them to the appropriate offices, sheriff, etc.
John Lehnhardt – SIA Preseident