{"id":31931,"date":"2025-11-03T22:40:06","date_gmt":"2025-11-03T22:40:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/31931\/"},"modified":"2025-11-03T22:40:06","modified_gmt":"2025-11-03T22:40:06","slug":"5-4m-beach-project-passes-first-weather-test","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/31931\/","title":{"rendered":"$5.4M beach project passes first weather test"},"content":{"rendered":"

MARTIN COUNTY, Fla. \u2014 While Florida’s east coast has been spared the brunt of strong tropical winds this season, some of our beaches have still taken a beating.<\/p>\n

King tides this week could carve out more sand from the shoreline.<\/p>\n

WATCH BELOW: $5.4M beach project in Martin County passes first weather test<\/p>\n

$5.4M beach project in Martin County passes first weather test<\/p>\n

On Monday, WPTV looked at one project on the Treasure Coast to see if its beach protection measures were money well spent.<\/p>\n

Sitting with her husband facing the salty spray of the Atlantic Ocean, Della Parrish on Monday enjoyed Bathtub Beach, located on the south end of Hutchinson Island.<\/p>\n

“It’s quiet, it’s peaceful. It’s very clear, very clean. \u2026 This is heavenly,” Parrish said.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Kylie Olson watched her 18-month-old jump into a puddle at the water’s edge.<\/p>\n

“Typically, there’s tide pools and the reef stops the waves, so it’s good for kids,” Olson said.<\/p>\n

The beach has been a favorite spot for generations, but has often been shut down for months at a time following rough weather.<\/p>\n

It reopened in January after an 18-month restoration project.<\/a><\/p>\n

Martin County Coastal Program Manager Jessica Garland said the beach and the reef have been faring well despite a rough stretch in October, where erosion exposed part of what was a hidden seawall.<\/p>\n

We monitored the construction of that seawall in 2023, which was built in a particular way.<\/p>\n

“(The project involved) putting an angled cap on the top of the seawall with the goal of refracting back the waves to break up their energy,” Garland said.<\/p>\n

The project also included landscaping and drainage in the parking lot to protect nearby MacArthur Boulevard from washing out during a storm. The road was also raised.<\/p>\n

The total price tag for the project was $5.4 million.<\/p>\n

“We haven’t had to close the beach. It’s open. The plan is to keep it open through the entire holiday season,” Garland said.<\/p>\n

Signs at the beach warn of a drop-off from the parking lot to the sand. But as opposed to years past, visitors can still access the beach. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MARTIN COUNTY, Fla. \u2014 While Florida’s east coast has been spared the brunt of strong tropical winds this…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":31932,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[22685,28,1160,171,173,172,179,12758],"class_list":{"0":"post-31931","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-port-st-lucie","8":"tag-bathtub-beach","9":"tag-florida","10":"tag-martin-county","11":"tag-port-st-lucie","12":"tag-port-st-lucie-headlines","13":"tag-port-st-lucie-news","14":"tag-treasure-coast","15":"tag-wptv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31931","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31931"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31931\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}