Martin County’s renowned Bathtub Reef Beach will take a big step in its restoration when construction starts on its dune system Tuesday.

The $552,500 restoration of the South Hutchinson Island beach should be complete by May 1 to avoid interfering with sea turtle nesting season, according to a news release. The beach has been closed since October 2009 because of seasonal erosion’s effect on parking and unsafe swimming conditions.

The state and Martin County are each paying half the cost.

Public access might not return until later because the infrastructure at the beach — its bathrooms, the parking lot — needs to be rebuilt, said Kathy FitzPatrick, Martin County coastal engineer.

The county has closed Bathtub Beach several times since September 2007 because of the erosion issue.

The restoration project is “going to allow us to rebuild the dune and provide protection for the park during the storm season,” FitzPatrick said. “Hopefully, it will provide protection for a few years.”

More than 25,000 cubic yards of sand dredged from the St. Lucie Inlet’s flood shoal will be placed along the 1,324-foot shoreline at Bathtub Beach by Center Contractor Corporation.

The dredging will take place in the south side of the sandbar west of Sailfish Point because of the sand’s quality and lack of seagrass, the release said. Sand will be pumped through submerged pipes to Bathtub Reef Beach on the Intracoastal Waterway side of Sailfish Point. None of the sand will come from exposed sand areas.

Boaters near the Sailfish Point sandbar should be careful around the dredging equipment, the release said.

During construction, beachgoers will not be allowed to walk along the Bathtub Reef shoreline because of safety issues associated with working dredging lines at the site.

The restored dune should allow sand to accumulate naturally, which will act as a buffer that helps protect the parking lot from the surf, the release said.

And when the beach finally does reopen, residents shouldn’t expect to see the same Bathtub Reef Beach they were used to, FitzPatrick said. The vegetation and trees have largely disappeared, for example, she said.

“It’s a much different place than it was a couple years ago,” FitzPatrick said. “We are limited in what we can do, but we are doing all we can.”

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 20th, 2010 at 5:45 pm and is filed under environment, Stuart. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.