The St. Johns County Ocean and Fishing Pier no longer stands above the Atlantic Ocean

The St. Johns County Ocean and Fishing Pier (the Pier) lacks the Atlantic Ocean beneath its massive beams now that the St. Augustine Beach renourishment and shore restoration project, conducted by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Jacksonville (USACE) Jacksonville, has been completed.

Located on a four-acre beachfront park in St. Augustine, the Pier no longer extends over the ocean. Presently, fishing is thwarted while sightseeing is encouraged . Swimming and surfing are not permitted within 400 feet of the pier.

According to the USACE Jacksonville, the unfamiliar sight is temporary. The sand placement will eventually return to the nearshore system from wave and storm erosion.

“Anglers will be able to fish from the pier, we just can’t predict when that will be,” USACE wrote in an email sent to the St. Augustine Record. “Coastal reaches and segments of the ocean shoreline are not all equal. Because of natural variations in beach topography and the impact of man-made structures such as seawalls and armoring, some coastline locations are more vulnerable to erosion while others are more likely to accrete sand that migrates in the coastal sand budget.”

The USACE Jacksonville described the Pier’s location and the adjacent Embassy Hotel as one of the most highly erosive areas in the county, causing the need for “significantly” greater amounts of sand to compensate for the erosion. The Atlantic Ocean's waves and currents will reshape the newly filled beach area by spreading sand through a process they referred to as equilibration.

“Sand will be transported from the dry beach and deposited below the waterline within the active beach profile, which will help dissipate wave energy naturally generated by storms, thereby providing the intended coastal storm risk management benefits,” the agency says.

The USACE Jacksonville underscored that the sand placement is designed to spread a defensive resistance to wave and storm energy, thereby strengthening the entire local coastline.

“This process begins immediately after construction, with a full adjustment of the beach shape typically requiring months or multiple significant wave events to be complete,” the agency says.

Re-shaping is largely dependent on wave and storm activity.

“The greater the coastal storm activity, the shorter the duration of the equilibration process,” the agency says. ”In time, the St Augustine Beach Pier will reach out into the ocean, we just cannot predict when.”

Background information and updated progress maps can be found at https://www.saj.usace.army.mil/StAugustineBeach/

According to USACE Jacksonville, the St. Augustine Beach federal shore protection project was designed to place approximately 2.5 million cubic yards of sand on critically eroded beaches within the city of St. Augustine Beach at the cost of $33.5 million. The project extends approximately three miles north to south from Anastasia State Park to the A St. shoreline.

The project was stalled earlier this summer due to the discovery of a colony of Least Tern Birds within the area.

According to USACE Jacksonville , St. Johns County is the non-federal sponsor for the St. Augustine Beach shore protection project; the FCCE re-nourishment will be 100 percent federally funded to restore damages from recent hurricanes and nor’easter events.

"The federal project is a 50-year partnership between the Corps and St Johns County," they said. "It is cost share arrangement. The county gets funds from state and maybe other sources to meet their obligation, but the current renourishment is 100 percent federally funded in response to erosion/damage from Ian and Nicole in 2022; it’s congressionally mandated Flood Control and Coastal Emergencies money."

This article originally appeared on St. Augustine Record: The St. Johns County Ocean and Fishing Pier no longer stands above the Atlantic Ocean