A stroll along the boardwalk under construction at the Jupiter Inlet Lighthouse may take your breath away.
Elevated points offer a spectacular panorama of the Jupiter Inlet without having to venture up the 166-year-old lighthouse. Paths lead through lush, native landscapes. Sandy waterfront alcoves beckon boaters to drift ashore on protected beaches and crystal clear waters welcome snorkelers to explore underwater life.
The transformation is stunning.
Slated for completion in early December, the $16 million state and federal project is reshaping the landscape around the Civil War-era lighthouse for generations to come.
The multifaceted project, which broke ground in March 2025, protects a 1-mile stretch of shoreline along the designated Jupiter Inlet Lighthouse Outstanding Natural Area.
Its primary aim is to stabilize the shoreline bordering the site and reduce the erosion that chips away 7 feet of land a year. Over the decades, the 120-acre site has lost more than 5 acres.
With the restoration, officials promise expanded recreational areas and new sights to see.
Under the boardwalk
The most visible aspect of construction is an 8-foot walkway along 835 feet of shoreline on the south side of the site along the Loxahatchee River. The walkway sits on 200 pilings under which large limestone rocks provide a new barrier to protect the shore from erosion.
“The boardwalk became a need because at some point one of the branches of government had protected the shoreline by pouring concrete down it,” said Peter DeWitt, program manager for the federal Bureau of Land Management, which oversees the property. “That concrete had lasted 40 years, effectively stopping erosion, but it had been carving off and crevassing and slipping down into the waterway. These pilings now hold it in place.”
The boardwalk also allows for enhanced public access along the coastline and opportunities for recreation.
Sections of the boardwalk expand to 16 feet in width where interpretive plaques will provide information and education on the history and ecosystem along the Jupiter Inlet.
The boardwalk and new walkway leading to it are ADA-accessible, opening the site to many more visitors.
“We had a children’s physical therapy kind of practice come out here for a cleanup event set up specifically for them,” DeWitt told Stet News. “The comments we got from some of the families were that we were so well-prepared for having areas where kids in wheelchairs could look over the rail and enjoy.”
Combining preservation with public access
On the east side of the site where the property overlooks the Indian River, two levels of retaining walls are being constructed.
At water level, a sheet-metal retaining wall will stabilize the shoreline. More than 6,000 mangroves will line the water in front of the wall.
Behind the sheet metal wall and farther from the shoreline, a concrete retaining wall will provide further stabilization and protection for the site. The wall is designed to harness the power of gravity to resist the pressure of the soil pushing against it.
“What we’re really protecting here is everything you see all the way back to the roadway as part of this giant shell midden structure,” DeWitt said, referring to the Native American shell mound on the property. “We were constantly eroding historic artifacts and losing land, losing habitat, and losing the recreational resources here.”
A pathway between the two walls will be lined with native vegetation, much of which was on the site before the project. “There were a lot of plants here and I hated to see that genetic kind of fingerprint for this site completely vanish,” DeWitt said. “We worked with the Nature Conservancy and a youth organization called American Conservation Experience and we came out and we dug up trees and plants and tried to get a diverse portion. It kind of felt like Noah and the ark.”
The plants were stored in nurseries, on the property and in Blowing Rocks Preserve. The plants are now being brought back and supplemented with new plants. “We’re putting all native species in, all species that belong in our ecosystem and give people different environments to walk through,” DeWitt said.
Gopher tortoises were also temporarily relocated during construction.
“They were picked up on one side of the fence and moved to the other. As soon as the fences started to come down, they started cropping up back in their old haunts and now they have all that fresh vegetation,” DeWitt said.
Stairs will provide access to the nature pathway and to small beaches carved out along the shoreline below. At the end of the boardwalk, visitors can also navigate back to the lighthouse.
“People will be able to walk the 800 feet along the boardwalk, enjoy that, turn around and walk back,” DeWitt said. “Or they can go up the stairs here, and there will be a trail connecting the top of the staircase back around to the lighthouse.”
Beaches for boaters
DeWitt said ensuring public access throughout the site was important in his vision for the project. When he took over the project in 2013, he inherited plans that restricted public access and had drawn criticism from boaters and anglers.
“That very early plan just basically built a solid breakwater all the way along the shoreline that eliminated all boat access,” DeWitt said. “Some people appreciated it and some people didn’t.”
DeWitt advocated for a plan that would strike a balance between preservation and public access.
“I understand not just the need for people to use and want to enjoy public lands but also the need for those places to be beautifully preserved,” he said. “So, marrying those ideas, I got out there with a crayon on an aerial photograph and said, ‘This is what I want.’”
More than 800 individuals, businesses, partners and recreational users offered comments and the government modified its plans. The Marine Industries Association and Florida Inland Navigation District, which later provided money, were also engaged in shaping the overall direction.
The finished project will now have beaches where boaters can access the site from the water.
“What people used to do was pull up on the beach, nose in or bow in, and kind of get themselves wedged on the sand, then sit in the back of their boat to fish, play on the sand beside it. That’s still available,” DeWitt said.
The finished site will have capacity to fit 15 to 20 boats depending on the size of the boat and how close boats want to be to neighboring vessels. It used to have an average of 17 boats daily, according to a study conducted by the BLM.
A dock is also part of the project.
“We will have a dock for permitted uses only. So, you can envision maybe a historic ship pulling up there for a week and adding to the tours, or someone gets married and they want to be picked up and taken away by boat,” DeWitt said. “General public docking won’t be available.”
Sustainable recreation
The project includes enhancements to recreational facilities and new ones.
Get Up and Go Kayaking, which has operated glass bottom kayak tours from the site for many years, is now housed in a large tiki hut, which is also home to the Palm Beach Outrigger Canoe Club.
Another kayaking company will operate out of a smaller tiki hut on the west side of the property near the recently rebuilt U.S. 1 bridge. It will run kayaking tours from the site.
On the south side of Cato’s Bridge at the far northeast edge of the project area, visitors can access a protected snorkeling area that takes them under the bridge that leads to Jupiter Island.
“This is locally renowned for being just a great place to hang out, snorkel and see a lot of Caribbean-type fish and corals. So, we’re going to lean into that,” DeWittt said. “There will be a cutout bay that goes back behind the rocks and the start of a snorkeling trail that goes up and under the bridge.”
New pilings will protect it from boaters.
Beach access will also be expanded to accommodate more visitors, and a kiosk will provide snorkeling information.
A new fishing program is also in the works with 16-foot-wide areas along the boardwalk intended for anglers.
“We’re going to have some public fishing days every month where the public can come out and fish,” DeWitt said. “Historically I’ve heard from people who’ve grown up in Jupiter that they used to come down to the old Coast Guard docks that were here and it was some of the best snook fishing. So I’m really hoping that people get to experience that.”
Educational programs will be expanded with dedicated areas of the site intended for group engagement. A shaded section overlooking the Indian River features a camplike setting.
“I call it the Ranger Circle. We often bring in school groups and adult education programs, and I always wanted somewhere where we could sit in the shade and we could talk,” DeWitt said. “When people sit here, they have this kind of framed view of the water.”
Peter DeWitt is the federal official overseeing the $16 million construction project to protect the Jupiter Lighthouse from erosion. (Photo: Valerie Staggs/Stet)
Scientific studies on site
The final aspect of the project fulfills one of the core foundations of the 2008 congressional designation behind the Jupiter Lighthouse Outstanding Natural Area.
“It is written into the legislation that created the protections for this place, that we will use science to inform management and share that science with the world,” DeWitt said.
That science will take the form of Seahive, a 3D printed technology developed at the University of Miami that transforms concrete into hexagon tubes stuck together like a beehive.
Seahive structures have a mangrove planter in the back and a place to put oyster bags that recruit oysters in the front. One hundred feet of Seahive will be installed near Cato’s Bridge.
Teams from the University of Miami and Florida International University will monitor the site and measure how effective the tubes are in reducing erosion and restoring marine habitats. The results will be compared to the traditional method of installing riprap rock along shorelines.
“We’re interested in seeing what works best in the environment and what produces habitat,” DeWitt said.
A 75-year stopgap
Money for the project has principally come from two sources. The Great American Outdoors Act, which covers deferred maintenance through the Department of the Interior, contributed $8 million.
“We obviously had deferred maintenance because every structure we ever built, every trail on the shoreline was disappearing,” DeWitt said.
The second portion came from Florida Inland Navigation District, a statewide taxing body that supports local initiatives to improve access to the Intracoastal Waterway.
Once completed, the improvements will ease the impact of erosion but won’t stop it. Myriad factors cause erosion, some manmade and some natural.
“You can affect erosion by building a seawall a mile upstream and transferring that energy, but then you can affect it by not obeying a no-wake zone or pulling up on the shoreline,” DeWitt said. “More frequent storms and tides also affect it. One afternoon I sat and watched a gentleman on his cellphone standing on the dune face, pacing back and forth. Every time he paced, sand would be rolling out and vegetation would be denuded.”
The improvements are designed for a 75-year lifespan with breakwaters able to withstand an additional 2 feet in height if the sea level rises.
Eventually, additional stabilization will be needed.
“Nothing is a permanent solution. Mother Nature will reclaim everything from rust and decay and the timbers and the metal,” DeWitt said. “But this is something that will keep it protected for longer.”
