As you are driving along Highway 98 past the Franklin County School, you might notice some new breakwaters in the bay just off the side of the Highway

As you are driving along Highway 98 past the Franklin County School, you might notice some new breakwaters in the bay just off the side of the Highway.      

 

That is part of the ongoing Franklin-98 Living Shoreline project.

 

The living shoreline project is designed to help protect the shoreline between Eastpoint and Carrabelle using rock and shell breakwaters along with natural vegetation.

 

It is 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 is designed to break up the energy from a storm before it can damage the road and shoreline.

 

The work is being done by North Florida Construction, who loads the limestone materials onto a barge in Eastpoint and transports them to the project site for deployment.

 

This allows for the materials to be efficiently placed without disturbing submerged aquatic vegetation or damaging uplands with tracked vehicles.

 

The minimized amount of construction equipment along the shoulder and right of way also reduces

traffic congestion along the project area.

 

Once the low-profile reefs are constructed, a marsh will be constructed behind them.

 

The marsh will primarily be comprised of Spartina grass.

 

The project initially was expected to extend nearly 12 miles from the Eastpoint breakwater to Carrabelle Beach but has been cut back to the shoreline between Eastpoint and just east of the Franklin County School, at Yents Bayou.

 

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