Beach Widening @ Old A1A Beach St John's Co FL

[Brian556]

The beach is moving inland rather quickly here. They have already had to move A1A inland decades ago. After A1A moved inland, a bunch of idiots built houses along the old route. Now, rather than letting nature take its course like they should, they are artificially widening the beach with nasty gray sand.
Also, they dug out several rectangular pits. Looks like they are trying to create a new channel here, but I don't see the point, given the proximity to the inlet.

Gray Sand:https://www.google.com/maps/@29.6839337,-81.2184955,740m/data=!3m1!1e3
New Channel: https://www.google.com/maps/@29.6922056,-81.2205232,1480m/data=!3m1!1e3

[formulanone]

After A1A moved inland, a bunch of idiots built houses along the old route.

I'll going to hazard a guess that the land was owned by private owners for many years before the route moved; possibly even before it was designated A1A, since  most all of the earliest landowners and towns in peninsular Florida started out by the Atlantic Ocean, and spread in every direction from there.

The area from south of Crescent Beach to Flagler Beach is particularly prone to erosion.

[Brian556]

After A1A moved inland, a bunch of idiots built houses along the old route.

I'll going to hazard a guess that the land was owned by private owners for many years before the route moved; possibly even before it was designated A1A, since  most all of the earliest landowners and towns in peninsular Florida started out by the Atlantic Ocean, and spread in every direction from there.

The area from south of Crescent Beach to Flagler Beach is particularly prone to erosion.

I read an article that stated that most of the houses on OLD A1A were constructed after A1A was relocated. They built on land that FDOT knew wasn't going to last much longer.

[DeaconG]

Same thing happens at Cape Canaveral, when they built the Barge Canal, they built a jetty on the south side of the channel leading to the canal, which disrupted the current there and now the beach south of the Cape is being eroded away. Several years ago they spent $12 million to perform beach re-nourishment south of Jetty Park, but they'll eventually have to do it again.