Delray Beach to Receive $28.5M for Beach Replenishment Project in 2025

Delray Beach oceanfront, Oct. 2024. (Photo: Boca Daily News)

Delray Beach will receive funding for its periodic beach renourishment project that is planned to be formally authorized – and perhaps started – in 2025, officials said.

The Florida Department of Environmental Protection, in a funding document released in recent weeks, said in plans to allocate about $28.5 million toward the Delray Beach portion of the larger renourishment project by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. In such beach maintenance projects, the federal agency funds the bulk of the cost of periodic renourishments with a mixture of state, county and local governments responsible for what is known as the “local share.” In this case, the state funding will cover all of the local share without placing the burden on local taxpayers.

The project “is anticipated to begin in the [2025] fiscal year,” which just began, City Manager Terrence Moore said in a periodic letter to the city commission.

“Recommendations for formal acceptance and authorization by the City Commission are likewise anticipated during the 2025 state legislative budget process,” Moore wrote.

Delray Beach oceanfront, Oct. 2024. (Photo: Boca Daily News)

Delray Beach oceanfront, Oct. 2024. (Photo: Boca Daily News)

The city’s beachfront last received replenishment in 2019, following a string of storms that took a chunk out of Delray Beach’s 2.8 mile stretch of shoreline. Previous projects were performed in 2014, after Hurricane Sandy affected beaches in 2012, and on six other occasions dating back to the 1970s.

As part of a multi-decade agreement between Palm Beach County, the DEP and the Army Corps, the federal agency implemented an initial beach replenishment project and is responsible for “renourishments” every seven to 10 years, or after significant storms affect the integrity of beaches and dunes. Beach renourishment projects are typically accomplished by taking sand from a “donor site” offshore and pumping it through a network of pipes to the beach. Heavy equipment operators then spread the sand to widen the beach berm – the portion of the sand where visitors set up their chairs and blankets – and shore up the dune line as a protective barrier against breaches during coastal storms.

Delray Beach oceanfront, Oct. 2024. (Photo: Boca Daily News)

The donor sites are pre-selected and have been analyzed to account for the grain quality of the existing beach sand and its environmental suitability. The Army Corps, through its Jacksonville office, ultimately places the project out to bid and selects a contractor to provide the dredging services.

Moore credited Public Works Director Missie Barletto and Assistant Director Cynthia Buisson from lobbying to obtain the funding, which may otherwise have had to be funded through local property taxes.