A new, multi-layered resiliency project in Brevard County aims to stop shoreline erosion along the Titusville Causeway, while also restoring key habitat, boosting water quality and expanding recreational access to the Indian River Lagoon.
Officials celebrated the $4.2 million project at a groundbreaking ceremony Wednesday, calling it a “game changer” for the Titusville Causeway, a key transportation corridor for the city that is quickly eroding.
Today, mere slivers of shoreline buffer the bridge. But longtime area residents say they remember when these shores stretched as far as 80 feet into the lagoon.
The new project aims to restore much of that shoreline, by planting native grasses; adding more than 4,000 cubic yards of sand; and installing 650 giant, shield-like devices offshore, to diminish the strength of waves coming in from the bay.
Those patented Wave Attenuation Devices, or WADs, are key to the project. But in keeping with the project’s multi-layered approach, they won’t just break up waves.
“It'll function as a [coral] reef, with all the habitat benefits of a reef,” said Virginia Barker, director of Brevard County’s Natural Resources Management Department. “It’s going to provide structure and habitat for fish and all sorts of encrusting organisms that … filter pollutants and solids out of the water, making the water clearer, which is what we need.”
Clearer water means healthier habitat for seagrass, a primary food source for manatees and the Indian River Lagoon’s “web of life,” according to Barker.
The WADs’ capacity to serve a dual function makes them especially attractive, Barker said: helping wildlife while shoring up the coast.
“The easy way to stabilize a shoreline is just with armor, normally a seawall or a rock revetment; in this case, we have riprap,” Barker said, gesturing to the clusters of rocks currently hugging the causeway. “But that is not good for wildlife. It's not good for horseshoe crab nesting; they need a sandy shoreline.”
Riprap is also not ideal for public access, Barker said: “Wouldn’t you just rather have a sandy beach to enter the lagoon?”
That’s why this project also involves planting more native vegetation along the shoreline, like mangroves, according to Andrew Risi, vice president and director of solutions for Sea and Shoreline, the company contracted to install the WADs.
It will also give space enthusiasts a place to watch launches. “We’re gonna fix the coastline … We’re gonna bring in fill; we’re gonna fix it up,” said Risi.
St. Johns River Water Management District Chief Resilience Officer Tom Frick said he appreciates when projects like this one are designed to tackle several different environmental challenges at once.
“A lot of times when people think of a project, they think it's one benefit: it's trying to prevent erosion, or it's a project trying to put back habitat, or you're trying to do water quality,” Frick said. “Well, this is a project that actually will do all of those things.”
It’s an approach the water management district wants to see more of, Frick said.
“We want to see those multiple benefits,” Frick said. “We want to do projects that are gonna be doing good for the lagoon, on all levels, and then also actually good for the people that live here. It's gonna help stabilize this causeway.”
Towards the end of the project, drones will drop a million baby clams into the lagoon, to help filter and clean the water for better seagrass habitat. Construction is expected to take about 8 months, wrapping up around February, Barker said.
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