Destin Florida Officials Aim to Attach Holiday Isle Renourishment to Norriego Point Stabilization Project
City of Destin officials are planning to tag onto an existing dredging operation, the Norriego Point Stabilization, to replenish the severely eroded beach on Destin’s Holiday Isle. Moving forward with the project first required agreement from several sources. The Okaloosa County commissioners voted to spend approximately $2 million in bed tax money for the project. The City of Destin will use its existing maintenance dredging permit to do the work, and Destin officials agreed to undertake contract negotiations and construction management and the county’s Tourist Development Department will reimburse the city for its costs.
To do the Holiday Isle renourishment, a planned county and city interlocal agreement requires Destin officials to contract with Inland Dredging Company of Tennessee, which would dredge sand from the pass for the Reach 1 area of the beach. The Inland Dredging Company is a subcontractor for Norriego Point stabilization project contractor Luhr Bros. of Columbia, Illinois. The eroded Reach 1 project area would receive about 130,000 cubic yards of sand. Beach restoration at Holiday Isle would begin when Inland Dredging Company completes dredging sand for Norriego Point, which is expected to start in mid-March and be completed within 45 to 60 days. The 24-inch cutter suction dredge Kelly L will be used for the project along with several deck barges and land-based bull doziers and back hoes.
The Norriego Point Stabilization project was contracted at $9.7 million and work began in October. The project has three components, shoreline stabilization, beach and dune restoration and recreation improvements. Dredging the East Pass Channel will supply approximately 5 acres of upland sand to the point. The point will be armored with sheet pile and large armor stone, and T-groins and existing embayments will be rehabilitated. One new embayment will be added. The stabilization and dune restoration are expected to be complete by the fall of 2018.
The next phase will be a $2.8 million recreational improvement project to start in fall 2018 with completion tentatively in the spring 2019. This project received $10 million in early restoration funding and $3.7 million in additional funding from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), which secured money through the Beach Management Funding Assistance program and the Natural Resource Damage Assessment (NRDA) restoration process, which evaluates and restores natural resources that were impacted by the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill. DEP is overseeing the project.
