Seawall Replacement in Florida

What Seawall Replacement Involves

Replacing a seawall on an exposed shoreline means designing a new wall for the waves, scour and water levels it will face over its service life, then building it without losing the land behind the old one. Because exposure is the driver, the new design often looks different from the old wall: a heavier or more corrosion-resistant section, deeper embedment, a higher cap, stone at the toe and better drainage behind it.

If your wall sits on a sheltered canal or lake and the main issue is soil loss rather than wave attack, Bulkhead Replacement covers that situation in more detail.

Repair, Raise or Replace

Full replacement is not the only answer to an old or low seawall. The comparison below is a starting point for a conversation with a contractor or engineer, not a determination.

See Seawall Repair if your wall fits the first row, and Repair vs. Replacement for a fuller framework. No option comes with a promise about how long the wall will last; that depends on design, exposure and maintenance.

Designing for Today's Water Levels

Many Florida seawalls were set at heights chosen decades ago. Fort Lauderdale's master plan describes a September 2015 king tide that ran 20 inches above the average high tide and flooded the city, after which the City Commission asked for the seawall ordinance to be revised. The February 2018 report says the adopted ordinance set a minimum seawall elevation of 3.9 feet NAVD 88 and that nearly all of the 35 city-owned walls it studied would need raising. Standards like this are revised over time, so check the current code where you live. NOAA's National Hurricane Center adds that storm tide combines surge with the normal tide, and waves on top can add feet more.

In Northeast Florida, the City of Jacksonville's 2023 Resilient Jacksonville strategy lists setting height standards for privately owned bulkheads as a planned action, and it describes designing walls with adaptive capacity, meaning they can be raised later as needed. It also cautions that bulkheads and seawalls can trap runoff behind them, so a higher cap needs a drainage plan. Ask whether a replacement cap can be detailed to accept a future extension, and check both minimum and maximum elevation rules where you live.

How Replacement Seawalls Are Built

Fort Lauderdale's plan calls burying the old wall in place the most effective way to replace seawalls without compromising the property behind them: a new wall of sheet piling tied together with a reinforced concrete cap, or precast panels and piling, installed immediately in front of the existing wall. The new wall may be cantilevered, tied back, or supported by king piles and battered piles. Sheet piles come in concrete, aluminum, fiberglass and steel; aluminum and fiberglass offer increased corrosion resistance, and corrugated profiles change the wall's appearance.

The plan notes that conventional installations use equipment working from the water. Where site conditions or constraints rule out conventional installation, the plan points to a press-in method for placing sheet piles as an alternative. On exposed sites, work is also planned around tides and weather, with an eye on the Atlantic hurricane season from June through November.

Evaluating the Site for a Replacement

Permits for Seawall Replacement

• Restoration exemption. Rule 62-330.051(12)(b), which implements section 403.813(1)(e), Florida Statutes, covers restoring a seawall no more than 18 inches waterward of its previous location, measured from the waterward face of the existing wall to the face of the new one. It applies where the wall was damaged by a discrete event such as a storm within the last year, or where the work involves only minimal backfilling and is not mainly land reclamation, and applicable chapter 161 permits are obtained.
• Riprap facing. Section 373.414(5) states an intent to protect estuaries and lagoons from vertical seawalls. Its paragraph (c) says that when considering a permit to repair or replace an existing vertical seawall, the agency shall generally require the wall to be faced with riprap, or replaced with riprap, unless a listed condition exists, such as an existing man-made canal already lined in whole or part with vertical seawalls. Plan for that possibility early, since riprap affects boat access.
• The open coast. Seaward of the Coastal Construction Control Line, FDEP's CCCL program applies, and section 161.085 governs rigid coastal armoring.
• Other layers. State-owned submerged lands authorization, federal review in navigable waters, and a local building permit with engineer-sealed plans can all apply, along with any local elevation standards.

Start with the Florida seawall permits overview and the Duval County or St. Johns County guides, and confirm with the agencies.

Planning, Timing and What to Ask

Questions to Ask

• Should this wall be repaired, raised or replaced, and what evidence supports that?
• What water level and waves is the new wall designed for, and can the cap be raised later?
• Could the agency require riprap facing here, and how would that affect my dock or lift?
• Which installation method do you plan to use, and why does it suit this site?
• How will the transition to each neighbor's wall be handled if the heights differ?
• What happens to the old wall, and how is it accounted for in the design?

Seawall Replacement in Northeast Florida and Elsewhere

Barefoot Marine Construction, which owns and operates Florida Bulk Head, handles seawall replacement requests directly in Duval, St. Johns, Nassau, Clay, Flagler and Putnam counties. Exposure here ranges from inlets and the Intracoastal Waterway to the wide St. Johns River, where the National Hurricane Center's Hurricane Irma report says the river set record flood stages at many locations in Duval County in 2017. Oceanfront lots along the Atlantic fall under the CCCL program. See Northeast Florida.

Outside Northeast Florida, requests are accepted through the independent contractor network Florida Bulk Head is building. Matching is subject to contractor availability, and no partner contractor is confirmed in any region yet. Read the lead-sharing disclosure to see how referrals work.