ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Fla — A couple stretches of A1A that have washed out with hurricanes and storms could be in for a more permanent solution.
The Florida Department of Transportation is working on a more resilient fix for Highway A1A in Vilano and Mayport.
"There’s a profound history with Vilano," Jamie Driggers with the Florida Department of Transportation said.
When Nicole battered Vilano Beach in 2022, it pounded Highway A1A and the storm literally broke the road.
The road cracked and fell apart near the over-the-street walkways in Vilano.
"In this particular stretch of Vilano, we’ve had 16 named storms -- not counting nor’easters, king tides -- in the course of 20 years," Driggers said. He is a planning environmental management engineer for FDOT.
Driggers said the DOT has repaired the road after the storms. He said that's considered a reactive solution. The DOT is working on a more "proactive resiliency based solution" for this part of the road.
DOT is planning a somewhat rare technique to keep this stretch of A1A intact. It would involve something called a sheet pile wall.
Driggers said, "It’s essentially a hardened structure and it will be embedded down below the ground."
It looks something like a seawall, made of concrete or steel.
"It’ll be driven into the ground so that it can’t be undermined by wave action or overtop by wave pressure," Driggers explained.
Then a concrete cap will go on top of the underground seawall, if you will. And the actual road will be laid, just slightly to the west of it. It’ll look something like the canal wall at Penmen Road and Hopkins Creek near Neptune Beach.
All of the sheet pile wall will be embedded and out of sight, covered up to the top of the road with sand. The goal is to not block the view of the beach.
"The idea is what you see today is what you should see when we’re finished with our project," Driggers said.
It will extend for only a few blocks in the area of A1A that broke apart during Nicole.
Driggers noted that over time, this $6 million fix will cost less than repeated repairs after every storm.
Federal money is also paying for the same kind of solution farther north on A1A in Mayport near the Coast Guard station. That part of the road has experienced similar issues during storms.
While this sheet pile wall construction has been created elsewhere in Florida, Driggers explained it’s unique to have it all underground, preserving the natural view.
"The proposal is to eliminate that future recurring impact where we have a complete loss of our roadway infrastructure," Driggers said, "and make it more resilient to the environmental factors."
Construction in Vilano will start in 2025. Federal money is paying for both projects.