WATER & COAST
Jacksonville Beach Pier
Duval County · North Florida & First Coast
The city's rebuilt fishing pier, put back eight feet higher and on heavier pilings after Hurricane Matthew took half of it.
ABOUT THIS PLACE
The Jacksonville Beach Fishing Pier ran 1,300 feet into the Atlantic until October 2016, when Hurricane Matthew came up the coast as a category two storm and destroyed close to half of it. The wreckage had to be cleared off the ocean floor before anything could be rebuilt. The replacement followed the same line as the original but was built taller and heavier: eight feet higher above the water, on 24-inch pilings instead of the old ones, with a new wood deck, new lighting, new plumbing and a fire protection system. Work began in November 2019 and finished in the summer of 2022, at a cost close to ten million dollars, with the city of Jacksonville as the client. The pier is the landmark people picture when they picture Jacksonville Beach, and it is back in use for fishing and for walking out over the surf. Anyone who remembers the gap in the middle after the storm will notice how much more substantial the structure is now. Building it higher and stronger was the point, because the next storm is only a question of when
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