Florida’s Highway-Protecting Atlantic Seawalls Near Completion

The Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) is almost finished with a $117 million seawall project to protect State Road A1A from future hurricane damage.

The roadway, also known as the Jimmy Buffett Memorial Highway, spans 339 miles along Florida’s Atlantic coast. In 2022, it was heavily damaged in Volusia and Flagler counties during Hurricanes Ian and Nicole.

The highway is “a critical transportation corridor for residents and businesses, as well as a hurricane evacuation route,” Cindi Lane, FDOT regional public information director, told the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials.

Each seawall is 1.3 miles long. One sits on the border of both counties, while the other is about six miles south in Volusia County.

The structures use secant piling, a construction technique popular in waterfront and marine work. It protects against soil erosion and water intrusion. Secant piling also minimizes coastal ecosystem disturbance, reducing the environmental impact of construction.

The walls were built by drilling alternating and overlapping holes into the beach, pumping in concrete and installing fiberglass cages. They are expected to last at least 50 years.

Crews will use 123,000 tons of sand to create dunes to cover the seawalls and FDOT will plant over 142,000 native plants on the sand dunes.

“From the road, you wouldn’t know there’s a seawall there because all you see is a sand dune,” Lane said. “Even if a storm wrecks the sand dunes, the underground seawall should protect the road.”

FDOT will add more sand to cover the seawalls as needed.

The walls and caps are finished at both sites and FDOT is almost done shaping the dunes and planting. It expects to complete the entire project by early 2026.

Sources: American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, Shore Systems Group