The long-awaited Indian River Shores dune replenishment project has finally begun, with county crews dumping the first truckloads of sand onto storm-battered John’s Island beaches Monday.

Contractors started staging earth-moving equipment and preparing the site – a vacant oceanfront parcel at 1 Sea Court – last week, with the stream of dozens of dump trucks through the gated community set to begin on Tuesday. Bergman said the contractor will use 25 dump trucks in rotation, making several trips to the sand mine each day. The work could wrap up as early as Valentine’s Day, or run as late as St. Patrick’s Day, with nearly three miles of dune to build and weather being unpredictable. “If the environmental conditions are perfect they can move along quickly, but if mother nature throws a few nor’eastern swells at us then it will take the contractor longer,” Bergman said. The owner of 1 Sea Court, John Tully, volunteered his property as a makeshift beach access for the crews so his neighbors and the John’s Island Club could receive an influx of sand before this upcoming season’s Nor’easters begin, or worst case, the tropics kick up and Florida gets a late November storm.

Confusion reigned on Monday, however, as county and Indian River Shores officials had held a site meeting last week at the Beachcomber Lane dune overwalk just east of the Shores Town Hall complex. Beachcomber was to be one main beach access point for the project.

“Our on-site meeting was at the Beachcomber Lane access to evaluate it. I was just concerned about all those trucks coming down a residential street even though it is a public beach access,” Town Manager Jim Harpring said on Monday.

So the strategy was shifted so crews would begin work on Sea Court, and town officials were unaware that the work had begun, seeing no one working at Beachcomber, as they were waiting to close the public access there.

“There was some discussion when we had an on-site meeting last week. The contractor mentioned that they may not need Beachcomber,” Harpring said, but nothing definite was communicated, apparently.

On Monday afternoon, everyone got on the same page about the work beginning at the Sea Court site. Only a handful of truckloads of sand were hauled in Monday.

“As planned by the contractor, today was a light hauling day as they are building up the ramp at the access site. Tomorrow we anticipate much more sand hauling and some on-beach placement,” Indian River County Coastal Resource Manager Quentin Bergman said.

Bergman said the contractor will use 25 dump trucks in rotation, making several trips to the sand mine each day. The work could wrap up as early as Valentine’s Day, or run as late as St. Patrick’s Day, with nearly three miles of dune to build and weather being unpredictable.

“If the environmental conditions are perfect they can move along quickly, but if mother nature throws a few nor’eastern swells at us then it will take the contractor longer,” Bergman said.

The 2.9-mile project site runs from just south of the Turtle Trail beach access in the north to Tracking Station beach park, behind the CVS store and the 7-Eleven, in the south. The area is designated as Sector 4 in the county’s beach management plan and it’s been overlooked for a decade while beaches to the north have been replenished multiple times.

Harpring, town public works staff and members of the town council have pressured county officials to complete the project, and state regulators to designate the Shores beaches as “critically eroded,” which would prioritize the beaches for sand and funding.

Shores residents got a windfall of sorts when South Beach residents failed to sign the required number of beach access easements to make the so-called Sector 7 replenishment project in the Moorings area legally viable.

County staff finally abandoned that project after more than two years of trying to convince property owners to give construction crews access to do the work. So the funds were re-directed to the Shores and engineering and permitting of a new project began.

Permits for the Shores project were secured in the spring but it was too late to begin the project before Sea Turtle Nesting Season began. Nov. 1 marked the end of nesting season, so crews could move equipment onto the beach.

While waiting for the county sand project to get underway, private property owners and the John’s Island Club have paid contractors to bring in sand under emergency permits where structures were threatened by erosion.

Dickerson Infrastructure submitted the winning bid of $6.6 million, with the mined beach-quality sand coming from Stewart Materials in St. Lucie County. Both Dickerson and Stewart have successfully completed engineered beach projects for the county on time and under budget previously, county officials said.

Approximately 147,788 native salt-tolerant sea oats and other dune plants will be installed on the top of the newly constructed dune, county Natural Resources Deputy Director Eric Charest said.

A Florida Department of Environmental Protection grant of $4.3 million will pay for the bulk of the project, while the county has applied for another $1.6 million from the Hurricane Ian and Nicole Restoration Reimbursement Grant Program (HRRGP).