After two major hurricanes in 2024, massive flooding and storm surge left Pinellas County beaches severely eroded.
In some cases, the erosion was so severe the beaches barely existed at all.
In response, the county began a $126 million renourishment project in Sep. 2025 that is now expected to be fully complete by March.
Pinellas County Public Works Director Kelli Hammer Levy said the extent of the damage, particularly from Hurricane Helene, was unprecedented.
“I've been with the county for almost 26 years, and it was definitely worse than I personally have ever seen,” she said. “It was a very transformational storm when it comes to what our coastline looked like.”
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The nourishment process involves taking sand from “borrowing areas,” mixing it with seawater, and pumping it into the affected beaches. This creates a sand barrier that allows the water to run off and prevents more water from entering the beach.
In this case, it took sand from Egmont Shoal, Pass-a-Grille, Blind Pass and John's Pass.
That sand was placed in eight coastal municipalities: Clearwater's Sand Key, Belleair Beach, North Redington Beach, Redington Shores, Indian Rocks Beach, Indian Shores, Treasure Island and Upham Beach.
Normally, this process is done about every five years to keep the beaches in good condition.
In Pinellas County, it’s usually done in partnership with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which provides a portion of the funding.
But after a disagreement over the Corps requiring every beachfront property owner to sign over an easement for access for any renourishment projects, the partnership ended.
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That prevented the county from carrying out nourishment scheduled for 2024.
“We were already damaged,” Levy said. “Helene was the final blow. We didn't have any emergency nourishment projects to correct damage, and we didn't have our routine maintenance nourishment in 2024, so we were already in a really bad spot when Helene hit.”
As a result, the cost was mostly funded by the Tourist Development Tax, which is also known as the hotel bed tax, paid by visitors. The project also received more than $13 million in state grants.
Beaches are an important economic engine for Pinellas County.
According to a report by Visit St.Pete-Clearwater, the tourism industry accounted for about 100,000 jobs and had an economic impact of over $10 billion for the county in 2025.
Additionally, Levy said beaches are also an important nesting spot for various types of wildlife, including sea turtles and shorebirds.
“Our beaches are the biggest reason why people come to Pinellas County,” she said. “Collectively, they’re a community asset that we had to restore. We had no other choice.”
Sand has already been placed in the damaged beaches, and all that’s left is to put plants on the dunes for the project to be done.
The county plans to celebrate the completion of the project with an event Monday morning at Sunset Beach in Treasure Island.
