{"id":32174,"date":"2025-11-04T01:56:06","date_gmt":"2025-11-04T01:56:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/32174\/"},"modified":"2025-11-04T01:56:06","modified_gmt":"2025-11-04T01:56:06","slug":"5-4-million-bathtub-beach-project-in-martin-county-passes-first-weather-test","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/32174\/","title":{"rendered":"$5.4 million Bathtub Beach project in Martin County passes first weather test"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text | article-text\">While Florida&#8217;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<p class=\"text | article-text\">King tides this week could carve out more sand from the shoreline.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">WATCH BELOW: $5.4M beach project in Martin County passes first weather test<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">On Monday, WPTV looked at one project on the Treasure Coast to see if its beach protection measures were money well spent.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">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<p class=\"text | article-text\">&#8220;It&#8217;s quiet, it&#8217;s peaceful. It&#8217;s very clear, very clean. \u2026 This is heavenly,&#8221; Parrish said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Meanwhile, Kylie Olson watched her 18-month-old jump into a puddle at the water&#8217;s edge.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">&#8220;Typically, there&#8217;s tide pools and the reef stops the waves, so it&#8217;s good for kids,&#8221; Olson said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">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<p class=\"text | article-text\">It reopened in January after an <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wptv.com\/news\/treasure-coast\/region-martin-county\/bathtub-beach-in-martin-county-back-open-after-18-month-restoration-project\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">18-month restoration project.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">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<p class=\"text | article-text\">We monitored the construction of that seawall in 2023, which was built in a particular way.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">&#8220;(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,&#8221; Garland said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">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<p class=\"text | article-text\">The total price tag for the project was $5.4 million.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">&#8220;We haven&#8217;t had to close the beach. It&#8217;s open. The plan is to keep it open through the entire holiday season,&#8221; Garland said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">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<p class=\"copyright |\">Copyright 2025 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While Florida&#8217;s east coast has been spared the brunt of strong tropical winds this season, some of our&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":32175,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[22232,4535,22233,171,173,172,22231],"class_list":{"0":"post-32174","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-port-st-lucie","8":"tag-boy-donates-stem-cells-to-father","9":"tag-california","10":"tag-father-with-cancer","11":"tag-port-st-lucie","12":"tag-port-st-lucie-headlines","13":"tag-port-st-lucie-news","14":"tag-stem-cell-donation"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32174","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=32174"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32174\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32175"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}