Pinellas County Beach Renourishment Celebration Media Event // Credit: Pinellas County
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Pinellas County has completed its nearly $126 million beach nourishment project, restoring beaches after erosion from an active 2024 hurricane storm season.
Local leaders celebrated by pouring the last bucket of sand Monday.
The project spanned eight municipalities from Clearwater to St. Pete Beach.
Dave Eggers is the chair of the Pinellas County Commission.
“Throughout these beaches, we placed nearly 2 million cubic yards of sand. We estimate that’s enough sand to fill up one of the projects we support, the Dali Museum, more than 40 times.” Eggers said.
The project involved dredging sand portions of Egmont Shoal, Pass-a-Grille, Blind Pass, and John’s Pass.
The dredged sand was placed on beaches affected by erosion, including Sand Key, Belleair Beach, North Redington Beach, Redington Shores, Indian Rocks Beach, Indian Shores, Treasure Island, and Upham Beach.
The project cost $125.7 million.
Visit St. Pete Clearwater CEO Brian Lowack says that approximately $112 million was generated from a bed tax paid by visitors, and the rest came from the state through Florida Department of Environmental Protection grants.
“This is what we call from visitors with love, right? All these visitors that come here every year for their vacations, they spend their money in the local businesses, they spend local taxes, and they go directly to projects like this that our residents get to benefit from.” Lowack told WMNF.
The county usually benefited from federal funding, but was not eligible due to a lack of easements from all property owners affected by the project.