Taylor Engineering has assisted St. Lucie County with its shore protection project since 1996. The first task was to help nourish a 1.3-mile beach segment immediately south of Fort Pierce Inlet. The project involved a comprehensive coastal processes analysis; beach design; evaluating temporary shore protection features; establishing an erosion control line; characterizing inlet processes through numerical modeling; revision of the sediment budget; reaching local, state, and federal governmental consensus on responsibilities and funding; defining a sand source; securing perpetual public-use easements; and minimizing hardbottom and other environmental impacts. In addition, Taylor Engineering performed a beach economic study to determine storm damage reduction and recreational benefits and project benefit-cost ratio.
We obtained environmental permits to restore the beach in 1999, 2003, 2004, 2005, and 2007. These projects have added to the beach about 2,500,000 cubic yards of sand dredged from Capron Shoal, located three miles offshore. Working closely with the state and federal regulatory agencies, Taylor Engineering prepared a unique plan for mitigating hardbottom impacts. The plan components included construction of artificial hardbottom, exotic vegetation control on an island in St. Lucie Inlet, upper beach vegetation in the nourishment area, and enhanced sea turtle protection in the project area.
In spite of periodic beach nourishment, the northernmost 2,000 feet of the federal shore protection project, located immediately downdrift of Fort Pierce Inlet, experiences chronic erosion due to inlet effects. Consequently, the Jacksonville District U.S. Army Corps of Engineers contracted Taylor Engineering in 2001 to prepare a Design Documentation Report to address this erosional hot spot. Evaluation of erosion mitigation alternatives - T-head and normal groins, segmented breakwaters, inlet south jetty extension, and overfilled nourishment templates - considered engineering performance, environmental effects, renourishment intervals, permit issues, and costs. The study also addressed the detailed design of the recommended alternative, a field of shoreline stabilization structures consisting of six T-groins and a breakwater. To include provisions for Section 111 impacts in project cost sharing and to extend the project life an additional 50 years, Taylor Engineering has recently developed a Limited Reevaluation Report, which the USACE South Atlantic Division has approved, and is completing a General Reevaluation Report.
Other services include monitoring beach performance, turtle nesting, and hardbottom impacts since 1999; preparation of a PL84-99 report following the impacts of Hurricane Irene in 1999; and preparation of plans and specifications for nearshore artificial reefs.
