A pelican sitting on a seawall in downtown St. Pete | City of St. Pete

After several years of planning, the City of St. Pete is now entering the public outreach phase of its Citywide Seawall Master Plan, a long-term effort focused on addressing coastal flooding, erosion, and shoreline resilience.

The Seawall Master Plan is designed to evaluate the condition of City-owned seawalls and create a strategy for future repairs, replacements, and shoreline improvements.

A seawall is a hardened shoreline structure, typically constructed of concrete or steel, designed to protect land from erosion, storm surge, and tidal flooding.

In St. Pete, seawalls protect neighborhoods, parks, roadways, utilities, and other critical infrastructure from rising water levels.

Pinellas County has nearly 588 miles of coastline, almost half of which is hardened with seawalls.

Within St. Petersburg alone, there are roughly 80,000 linear feet, or about 15 miles, of City-owned seawalls, in addition to an estimated 500,000 linear feet of privately owned seawalls.

While the current study focuses on municipal infrastructure, City officials have noted that the findings could help inform broader shoreline policy and private investment decisions in the future.

The planning effort is being funded largely through a $900,000 Community Development Block Grant–Mitigation award, a federal program intended to help communities reduce disaster risks before future storm events occur.

After securing the federal funding in 2022, the City issued a Request for Qualifications seeking an engineering and planning team with coastal resilience expertise.

A couple sitting on a seawall in downtown St. Pete | City of ST. Pete

Following a competitive selection process, the City selected Miami-based Cummins Cederberg in 2024.

The total contract value is approximately $1.46 million, combining federal grant dollars with City funds.

As part of the Seawall Master Plan, the consultant team is inspecting municipal seawalls, developing a comprehensive GIS-based inventory, evaluating vulnerabilities tied to sea level rise and storm surge, and creating conceptual design alternatives for future improvements.

The plan will ultimately produce a prioritized list of projects, along with cost estimates and an implementation strategy intended to guide future capital improvement budgets and external funding applications.

Public outreach is now a central focus of the project.

The City is hosting two virtual public meetings to share project information and gather feedback from residents and stakeholders.

The meetings will take place on February 10th and February 17th at 6 p.m.

Residents are also encouraged to participate through an online survey.

According to the City, feedback collected during this outreach phase will help shape priorities and inform the final Seawall Master Plan.

More information about the Citywide Seawall Master Plan, including meeting links and the public survey, is available on the City’s website.