TREASURE ISLAND, Fla. – After a month of restoring the dunes and planting vegetation, the Emergency Sand Dune Restoration project on Sunset Beach is complete. Pinellas County headed up this project and the county’s tourism tax funded more than $6 million to make this restoration happen.
After Hurricane Idalia’s storm surge devasted area beaches, the county stepped in to rebuild dunes in some of the hardest hit areas. Dunes play a vital role in protecting areas from storm surge and wind. With the project complete, the city plans to reopen Sunset Beach on Oct. 28.
The final stage of the dune restoration project included planting native vegetation that will play a role in stabilizing the newly created dunes. To allow the new vegetation to grow and to protect the dunes, residents and visitors are reminded to stay off the dunes.
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To help remind beachgoers, the county and city are installing signs instructing people where to walk when heading to the beach. There will be designated pathways through the dunes to allow people to cross over safely and keep the dunes from being trampled on.
City crews are currently checking the parking lots in the Sunset Beach area to make sure they are ready to reopen as well. Many of these lots are made of a permeable surface and with all the sand and equipment on these lots the past few weeks, crews must make sure the lots were not damaged and are ready to reopen.
Treasure Island would like to thank Pinellas County and Visit St Pete Clearwater for funding this project and restoring Sunset Beach’s precious dunes system. The city would also like to thank everyone for their patience and understanding during this time we all worked together to get Sunset Beach back to beautiful.
“I want to thank the Pinellas County Commission and staff for funding and administering this Emergency Dune Restoration project, the City was happy to partner as the boots on the ground to inform, educate and collect the necessary construction easements from property owners that enabled the project to move forward,” Treasure Island City Manager Amy Davis said. “It is amazing what can get accomplished when we all work together and that is what it took to get this project completed.”
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