A high-profile tourist draw in a county loaded with tourist attractions will be out of commission for most of this year.

St. Johns County officials closed the Ocean and Fishing Pier this week to repair the pilings to the seaside platform in St. Augustine Beach. County engineers are working on strengthening and repairing the pilings to the structure. The work will continue through November.

The work is extensive. County officials say the project will be so involved, beach access to the area will be affected. The access to the north side of the pier will be closed while the south beach access will remain open so visitors can get to the ocean. Officials advise that surfers, anglers and swimmers should stay at least 500 feet away from the pier if they’re in the water.

The parking lot at the site of the pier at 350 State Road A1A will also see some reduced parking spaces to accommodate some of the construction equipment. But officials say the lot will remain open for the majority of the parking spaces. The gift shop at the base of the pier will also stay open.

The St. Johns County pier has endured some tough times in the past few years.

In July 2024, the St. Johns County pier became basically defunct after the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers completed a sand replenishing project on the beach around the pier. Years of erosion had depleted the shoreline of sand and the beach renourishment effort was designed to restore the area of much-needed beach.

The problem was the replenishment added so much sand that the pier was no longer over water because the beach stretched so much further east into the shoreline. Army Corps officials advised the public that the pier would eventually be back over water again once some of the replacement sand washed into the ocean, which was by design.

Then the pier was dealt another blow in August of that year when Hurricane Debby brushed the First Coast. The storm washed much of the replenishment sand out to sea. County engineers inspecting the structure after the storm found some of the pilings were compromised and damaged causing major portions of the structure to remain closed while repairs took place through early 2025.

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