On the rebuilt mile of beach north of the Stumphole revetment, the dry sand is supposed to be narrower this fall than it was in May. That shrinking is part of the design, and so are the rock structures meant to end up under the waterline.
Gulf County's 2025/26 St. Joseph Peninsula Beach Nourishment & Coastal Structures Project is finished. On September 1, 2026, the county's project page reported that all equipment had been removed, the Stumphole staging area had reopened to the public, and no more construction was planned. This fall is the first stretch of the year when the 1.1 miles between the Stumphole revetment and Scallop Cove are just a beach again, with no pipe, no off-road dump trucks and no crane. It's also the stretch when the beach starts settling into the shape it was designed to hold.
The sand is heading to the sandbar, as planned
The engineers' FAQ on sjpbeach.com explains what happens in the months after a nourishment project. The sand placed by the dredge goes down in a built shape that doesn't last, and the beach then shifts toward a more natural profile. Engineers call this "profile equilibration."
"The width of the dry beach will get smaller and will appear to quickly erode. This is intentional and this quantity of sand that leaves the dry beach will be deposited in the nearshore sand bar just seaward from where it was placed by the dredge."
The sand you've lost from your towel spot hasn't left the system. It has moved to the nearshore sandbar, just seaward of where the dredge placed it. How quickly that happens depends on nearshore waves and currents. Once the profile settles, the FAQ says, the shoreline should perform the way the engineer designed it to.
The color is changing on schedule too. Sand looks darker when it's pumped in wet, and the FAQ says it dries quickly and keeps lightening over time. It came from offshore Borrow Area "F," the same source used for the 2019 nourishment, and it was tested by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and the county's coastal consultant for color, shell content and grain size.
How much sand went in, against how much had washed away
The final figure on the project page is about 830,000 cubic yards of sand, with the nourishment phase finished on May 3, 2026. That number makes more sense next to the loss it replaced. Between 2019 and 2023 alone, more than 1.3 million cubic yards eroded from the southern shoreline of the peninsula. The county's project history attributes that loss to longshore sand transport, tropical storms and seasonal fronts.
So the 2026 sand job put back less than two-thirds of what this end of the Cape lost in four years. That gap is why this project also included rock, after earlier rounds of nourishment in 2008-2009 and 2019.
The breakwaters went in buried in sand and are meant to end up underwater
The eight breakwaters, numbered SB-1 at the north end near 3967 Cape San Blas Road down to SB-8 near the revetment, confused many residents while they were going in. WMBB reported in late July that the Coastal Community Association had looked into the project documents and found the breakwaters had been buried in the sand, not set offshore underwater as many people expected. The station reported that they "will naturally become visible underwater with erosion," and that they are designed to stay stable in waves up to five feet, though a large storm could affect them.
This connects back to the narrowing beach. As the sand shifts toward the sandbar, the rocks that were placed in the built beach end up in the water, which is exactly where the design wants them. The construction log describes the method. The contractor moved large amounts of sand to build temporary containment so crews could work without fighting the tides, then regraded the sand around each finished structure.
The last items on the contractor's list in August were the remaining warning-sign piles for the submerged rock and a final grading of the beach inside the breakwater limits to smooth out equipment ruts. On the August 17 update, the contractor reported that all construction activity was complete. The posts you now pass on your walk mark structures that will be harder to see each month.
Why rock under the water instead of jetties you can see
The rock went underwater because of how the permits played out. The county's 2019 feasibility study recommended three emergent T-head groins and seven submerged breakwaters between DEP reference monuments R-101 and R-105.5, the mile just north of the Stumphole revetment. During permitting, the review agencies preferred a design with less impact on swimming and nesting sea turtles and less risk of pushing erosion onto the beaches on either side. The 2023 redesign replaced all ten structures with eight submerged breakwaters.
The engineers' modeling predicts that this layout will keep as much as 50 percent more sand on the beach after six years than nourishment alone would. The 2019 study found that structures could lengthen the time between sand projects, possibly lowering future nourishment costs, though periodic nourishment would still be needed.
One mile, about five months of construction
The project page logged the schedule week by week. Here is the condensed version.
- Late March 2026. The hopper dredge RB Weeks starts pumping sand near 3967 Cape San Blas Road and works north first.
- April 2026. The hopper dredge Magdalen takes over. More than 350,000 cubic yards are in place by mid-April as work moves south toward Stumphole.
- May 3, 2026. Nourishment is complete at about 830,000 cubic yards, and most of the beach reopens.
- Early June 2026. Sea oats, panic grass and Gulf bluestem are planted along the new dune.
- July 1 to July 7, 2026. Breakwater work stops for the Fourth of July holiday.
- August 5 to August 10, 2026. SB-1, SB-3 and SB-2, the last three breakwaters, are finished.
- September 1, 2026. Equipment is gone, the staging area is reopened and the project is declared complete.
The dune plantings from June are worth watching this fall as well. The sea oats on the rebuilt dune are only a few months old, and they help hold the dune together.
Bertha was the first test
The breakwaters faced their first storm before they were all built. WJHG reported on July 24 that five of the eight were in place when Tropical Storm Bertha reached the Cape. Joseph Morrow, the senior coastal engineer, told the station the structures were working as intended along the 1.1-mile stretch. "I mean the beach seems to maintain a decent width," Morrow told WJHG.
The same report noted that boardwalks were washed away north of the project during that storm. Morrow said the nourishment needs to extend north, but funding stands in the way. He told WJHG the current project was paid for with a mix of federal, state and local tax dollars. For now, the rock-and-sand design covers the mile north of Stumphole and nothing beyond it.
If the rebuilt dune has you thinking about a walkover, the project FAQ notes that work on the beach and dune falls under Florida DEP permitting, and DEP's CCCL publications page carries its dune walkover and sand fence guidelines. This is general information, not legal advice, so confirm what your own property requires with DEP or a qualified professional before any work starts.
The south end in late October
Now that the equipment is gone, the reopened beach is easy to enjoy at this time of year. Gulf County's tourism office lists Stump Hole Beach Access at 3455 Cape San Blas Road as both walk-on and drive-on, with shore fishing and shelling among its uses. The seasonal guide from Scallop Cove's bait shop lists pompano as a spring and fall surf fish found near sandbars, and redfish as a year-round catch that peaks in spring and fall. With part of the new beach now sitting in the nearshore bar, the sandbar behind the breakwaters is part of the rebuilt beach.
Scallop Cove runs the General Store at 4310 Cape San Blas Road and Bait & Tackle next door at 4306. The store's location page lists the General Store open 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Sunday, and Bait & Tackle open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily. Check those hours before you head out. The store hosted the Harvest Run 5K & Beer Mile on October 17, with the 5K run on Loggerhead Trail.
A few miles north at William J. "Billy Joe" Rish Recreation Area, 6773 Cape San Blas Road, the park is hosting Magnificent Monarchs on Saturday, October 24, at 10 a.m. Mary Beth Cary of Monarchs Across Georgia will talk about monarch migration while guests watch for butterflies passing through. A few participants will go home with a native milkweed plant. Day-use entry fees apply. Rish Park follows up with an accessible Birdability bird walk on October 31 at 9 a.m., moved from its original October 10 date.
Further out, Christmas on the Coast on December 12 starts with a 6 p.m. parade on Monument Avenue in Port St. Joe, followed by Santa at the Cape San Blas Lighthouse.
If you own on the south end of the Cape and want to talk about how the finished project might matter for your property, from the new dune line to the warning posts offshore, the team at Beach Properties Real Estate Group walks this beach too. Contact Us whenever it suits you, and we'll give you a straight answer.
