Pinellas beaches restored after $126M renourishment effort

Why it matters: Thanks to the county's $126 million beach renourishment project, the barrier islands now have the kind of wide, elevated beach that helps protect people and wildlife from storm surge.

State of play: County contractors recently finished piping sand onto the shorelines of Upham Beach, Treasure Island and a swath of Sand Key from Clearwater south to Redington Beach, public works director Kelli Hammer Levy told Axios.

• Just some dune-planting is left, which Hammer Levy said will wrap up by the end of March, barring any weather complications.
• The project began in September, but the battle to get there dates back years.

Catch up quick: Pinellas beaches have undergone nourishment for decades, sharing the cost and workload with the federal government.

• That partnership hit a stalemate after the Army Corps of Engineers reinterpreted its own rules governing how to access privately owned sand, which is typically landward of a state-drawn boundary line.

• Nourishment stalled, and Pinellas officials decided to move forward with their own project, which hit its own friction over private beach access.

What we're watching: The beaches need nourishment every five or so years.

• How that will happen, and who will pay for it, will depend on whether the Army Corps and the county can work out a solution.