If you're in Northeast Florida, check your travel plans. An important regional recreational draw on Florida's First Coast has been temporarily knocked out of commission due to high tides and damage to a roadway.
Huguenot Memorial Park, located at 10980 Heckscher Drive in Jacksonville, has been temporarily closed due to high tides that have damaged one of the main roads entering the facility. Jacksonville officials closed the city park Thursday because the entrance road eroded into the St. Johns River. The park was also closed Friday.
"There is damage to the entry road at Huguenot Memorial Park. Therefore, we have temporarily closed the park. Our goal is to get the park back open at least on a limited basis by this weekend," said Phil Perry, chief communications officer for the city of Jacksonville.
Huguenot Memorial Park is a major draw for beachgoers from throughout the North Florida and South Georgia region. The park is at the mouth to the St. Johns River on the north side of the jetties that augment commercial shipping and recreational boating to pass into the interior of North Florida and exit into the Atlantic Ocean.
Depending on the time of the year, it's estimated that 10,000 to 20,000 vehicles enter Huguenot Park each weekend. The park, directly across the St. Johns River from Mayport Naval Station to the south, is the last beach that allows driving on the shoreline which is dotted with sand dunes and no buildings are on the coastal area of the park.
The effects from hurricanes in 2016 and 2017 heavily damaged the main entry roadway for the park and city officials have had to provide constant upgrades and revisions since. There have been temporary closures on and off in the past several years. The astronomical high tides in recent days have caused additional damage to that entry roadway.
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