Naples Beach Renourishment Begins as Trucks Haul 208,000 Tons of Sand to 3.5 Miles of Shoreline

Trucks began dumping sand on Naples Beach on Monday, Oct. 26, the first day of placement in an $8 million Collier County project that will spread more than 208,000 tons of sand along 3.5 miles of the city's shoreline, from Doctors Pass south to just past 21st Avenue South. The work is meant to rebuild a stretch of beach that lost a significant amount of sand during Hurricanes Helene and Milton in 2024 and to help protect nearby streets from flooding, according to WINK News. County officials expect it to be finished before the end of the year.

What is happening on the beach

Crews spent the end of last week setting up. According to project details published when the contract was awarded, mobilization and installation of the mats that carry equipment across the sand were set to begin Thursday, Oct. 23, with sand placement following. Monday marked the first day new sand reached the beach.

The project runs from Florida Department of Environmental Protection reference monument R-58A+300, at Doctors Pass, to monument R-79, just south of 21st Avenue South, a reach that lies entirely within the City of Naples. It takes in the downtown beachfront, including the area around the Naples Pier, which Hurricane Ian heavily damaged in 2022 and which is being rebuilt.

Unlike offshore dredging projects, the Naples job is a truck haul. More than 208,000 tons of sand will be trucked from an inland mine in Immokalee, and the county estimates about 9,450 truck trips will be needed. WINK News identified the supplier as Stewart Mining in Immokalee; other trade coverage refers to the company as Stewart Materials, the name used for the Immokalee supplier in earlier Collier County beach projects.

Contractor, cost and funding

The Collier County Board of County Commissioners unanimously approved the roughly $8 million project this month, WINK News reported. The county awarded the contract to Earth Tech Enterprises Inc. of Fort Myers, which it said was the lowest responsive and responsible bidder among five companies that bid.

The project is paid for with Collier County's tourist development tax, the bed tax charged on hotel rooms and other short-term rentals. A share of that tax is set aside for rebuilding public beaches, especially after major hurricanes.

Schedule, traffic and beach closures

Work is scheduled from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., Monday through Saturday. The trucks will use two designated routes to reach a north and a south beach access point, and drivers should expect some traffic near those sites. The county has said spotters will be posted to watch the trucks as they move along the beach.

Naples Beach will stay open during the project. Small sections will be fenced off while crews spread sand, and each closure will lift once work in that area is finished, so beachgoers should expect the closed zone to move along the shoreline over the coming weeks.

The key dates, as described by Collier County and WINK News:

Why the beach needs sand

Southwest Florida's beaches took repeated hits in the 2024 hurricane season. Hurricane Helene passed well offshore in the Gulf in late September 2024, but its surge still pushed over the dunes along the Naples area beaches. In a post-storm report, the National Weather Service said sand was piled a few feet deep along Gordon Drive in Naples and Gulf Shore Drive in Vanderbilt Beach. Two weeks later, Hurricane Milton brought another round of surge and erosion before making landfall near Siesta Key in Sarasota County.

Two years earlier, Hurricane Ian's surge tore through the Naples Pier and flooded much of the city's beachfront, part of the long string of storms that has worn down Collier's shoreline and kept its coastal program busy.

Part of a two-year rebuilding push

The Naples project is the latest in a series of truck-haul renourishments the county has run up and down its coast since the 2024 storms.

In early 2025, crews worked on Park Shore Beach just north of Doctors Pass, where WINK News reported about 312,000 tons of sand would be needed, hauled by truck from Immokalee, with completion expected by early April 2025.

Late in 2025, the county moved to North Naples. Dickerson Infrastructure Inc. of Fort Pierce hauled sand to Vanderbilt Beach and Pelican Bay Beach to replace sand eroded by Hurricanes Milton, Helene and Debby, according to the Naples Daily News. That project cost about $7.5 million. Because Vanderbilt is a public beach, the county put $5.5 million in tourist development tax money toward it; the private Pelican Bay beach was paid for by the Pelican Bay Services Division through assessments on residents. The county reported 168,000 tons of sand had been placed by late December 2025, also from the Immokalee supplier.

The Naples Beach work fills in the city's downtown shoreline south of those earlier projects.

Beachgoers weigh in

On the beach Monday, visitors were mostly supportive, if a little skeptical. Beachgoer John Gardetto told WINK News the new sand was harder to walk on than he was used to, but said the beach needs it and that it is going to bring people. Cheryl Mueller said she has concerns about the long-term viability of the project, noting that the ocean takes sand away every year as sea levels rise, but added that she was thrilled to see more sand on the beach. Janice Gardetto said people simply adjust to the work.

Mueller's question goes to the heart of beach renourishment in Florida. Sand placed on an eroding beach is expected to wash away over time, and communities plan to repeat projects every several years, more often when hurricanes strip beaches early. The county's approach of funding the work with bed tax money reflects the role Naples Beach plays in drawing the visitors who pay that tax.

What's next

Trucks will run six days a week through the fall, pausing only for Thanksgiving, as crews work along the 3.5-mile reach between Doctors Pass and 21st Avenue South. Residents near the north and south access points should plan for truck traffic during working hours, and beachgoers should watch for fenced areas and follow posted signs. If the schedule holds, the downtown beach will have its new sand in place by the holidays, ahead of the peak winter tourist season.