Marine Construction in St. Johns County, Florida

St. Johns County runs down the coast from Jacksonville through Ponte Vedra and St. Augustine. Much of the waterfront here is on the Intracoastal and the coastal rivers, with salinity higher than on much of the St. Johns.

Higher salinity matters. It is harder on timber and considerably harder on steel hardware and reinforcement, which shifts both material selection and the specification of the things you cannot see once a structure is built.

The water in St. Johns County

Conditions vary considerably within the county, which is why we assess exposure at your specific property rather than applying a county-wide answer.

• Intracoastal Waterway — Continuous boat wake plus tidal current. Wake is frequently the governing load.
• Matanzas River — Tidal, saline, with current that varies considerably along its length.
• Guana River and tidal marsh frontage — Lower-energy shoreline where erosion control approaches often fit better than a hard wall.
• Coastal creeks and canals — Sheltered water with salinity still high enough to drive material decisions.

What this means for your structure

• Higher salinity than inland locations — harder on timber, and harder on steel hardware and reinforcement.
• Marine borer activity is a real consideration for timber structures in saline water.
• Tidal current along the Intracoastal and the coastal rivers contributes to toe scour.
• Marsh and lower-energy frontage where a wall may not be the right answer — see our erosion control approach.

What we do in St. Johns County

Everything we do elsewhere on the First Coast. The three services that make up most of our work:

• Bulkheads — construction, repair, replacement and storm damage
• Seawalls — construction, repair, chemical grout injection, concrete cap and wall repair and void filling and soil stabilization
• Dock construction — custom, residential, commercial and municipal, and repair and restoration

Plus pile driving and jacketing, boathouses and boat lifts, erosion control, inspections, permitting and debris removal and marina maintenance. The full service list is here.

Permitting in St. Johns County

Work in St. Johns County may involve St. Johns County authorities alongside FDEP, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the St. Johns River Water Management District. Some locations carry additional considerations such as aquatic preserves or submerged resources.

Which agencies apply, and what each wants to see, depends on your site and scope — and the requirements are revised periodically. Treat this as orientation and confirm current requirements with each reviewing agency. We handle permitting on the projects we build, which is normally the longest item in a project schedule.