The Apalachee Regional Planning Council says it hopes to break ground on the Franklin-98 living shoreline project early next year.
The project, which will extend nearly 12 miles from the Eastpoint breakwater to Carrabelle Beach is designed to help protect the shoreline using rock and shell breakwaters along with natural vegetation.
Its considered a natural alternative to hardened shorelines like seawalls which have a tendency to simply push the erosion to the ends of the seawall.
The stretch of coastline between Eastpoint and Carrabelle Beach suffers severe erosion during strong storms and hurricanes – usually damaging Highway 98 and impacting transportation between the towns.
The breakwater created in this project will be designed to break up the energy from a storm before it can damage the road and shoreline.
Planning for the project began in 2019 but work will hopefully begin in early 2022 as long as all of the state and federal permits are approved.
An oyster shell collection program recently began in the county to collect shell for the project.
That program will recycle oyster shells from participating restaurants to use them in the project as opposed to allowing them to wind up in the landfill.
Participating restaurants include The Station Raw Bar and Half Shell Dockside at Scipio Creek in Apalachicola, Paddy’s Raw Bar on St. George Island, Lynn’s Quality Oysters in Eastpoint and Fathoms in Carrabelle.
If you would like to become a participating restaurant, please contact Anita Grove at the research reserve Anita.Grove@FloridaDEP.gov or call 850-653-5951.
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