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Work on Duval County Shore Protection project officially underway, expected to wrap up mid to late January 2019

Jacksonville, FL — After awarding a more than $15.6 million contract back in August to help restore Duval County's beaches and dunes, work is now officially underway.

The US Army Corps of Engineers-Jacksonville District says the contractor has mobilized most of their equipment to a staging area on 16 Street South, while the dredge, itself, is at an off-shore barge.

Jason Harrah, a project manager with the US Army Corps of Engineers, explains how the whole sand renourishment process works.

"To put it into the simplest terms, the dredge will go out into the ocean into a bar area. It will suck up the sand into the actual dredge, itself. The dredge will come out to a pipeline, where it will connect and pump the sand onto the beach. From there, you'll see a lot of bulldozers. You'll have some sectioned-off, fenced area for safety and once that sand gets pumped on the beach, the bulldozers go around and graze the sand and build up the dunes," says Harrah.

Harrah says for the Duval County Shore Protection Project, crews will be working south to north, starting with Jacksonville Beach, then Neptune Beach, Atlantic Beach, and, ultimately, Hanna Park.

This means beachgoers should expect to see 1,200 foot sections of the beaches closed off, at a time. Each section will be closed for about 5 to 7 days.

For anyone living nearby, Harrah warns they may hear some noise, as work on the project will be going on 24 hours a day.

"The most noise that most folks will hear is some of the rumbling of the bulldozers wheel's and there are back-up alarms for safety reasons," says Harrah.

But Harrah says while this is a bit of an inconvenience, given the recent hurricanes we've seen, he feels its worth the sacrifice for years of protection.

"These dunes and the beach are the first lines of defense to protect property and public safety. We saw in those images from Matthew and Irma how important it is to have this line of defense... We want to build these beaches back and build those dunes, so they are ready to sacrifice themselves, when that storm surge and those waves come from future storms," says Harrah.

The Duval County Shore Protection Project is currently slated to be complete by mid-to-late January 2019, weather permitting. From there, the City of Jacksonville expects to kick off their contract for sea oat planting.

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