If you walk or bike the Mandeville lakefront near Sunset Point, you've probably noticed the fencing has moved around more than once over the past year. First the old fishing pier disappeared. Then equipment showed up along the shoreline toward Lakeshore Drive. Then more fencing, in a different spot. It would be reasonable to assume this is all one long project that keeps getting delayed.
It isn't. Sunset Point currently has two separate infrastructure projects running through it, funded by different sources, managed by different contractors, and finishing on entirely different timelines. Confusing them leads to the wrong expectation about what reopens first.
The Berm Project Is Further Along Than It Looks
The larger of the two efforts is the Mandeville Lakefront Wetlands Restoration Project, a joint effort between the City of Mandeville and the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority. City and state officials broke ground on it in the fall of 2025. The scope is specific: a rock berm along the southern edge of the cypress swamp between Sunset Point and Lakeshore Drive, plus marsh creation and a weir, designed to cut down the wave energy that has been eating away at the swamp for years.
The money behind it tells you more about where things stand than the fencing does. The city's capital budget for the fiscal year beginning mid-2025 listed a $4,000,000 total appropriation for the berm, with only $276,806 actually spent as of June 30, 2025. That budget also flagged a pending CPRA matching grant of $1,984,200 and a separate federal grant tied to the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Restoration Program.
A follow-up capital budget the city filed for the next fiscal year, dated July 2026, shows that number has moved a lot. Project-to-date spending had climbed to $3,144,335, leaving a remaining balance of $855,665. In plain terms, the city spent roughly $2.9 million on this project in about a year, and as of that document, about a fifth of the total budget was still unspent.
That matters because the original target, according to the CPRA's own announcement, was to have the berm finished by January 2026. The spending pattern in the city's own budget filing suggests the work ran past that date. If you've been driving past the site expecting it to be wrapped up by now, the paperwork says otherwise. The heavy construction phase is largely funded and mostly built, but final work, likely site restoration and marsh planting, appears to still be underway well into 2026.
The Pier Was Never Part of That Project
Here's where the confusion usually starts. The Sunset Point fishing pier, the 400-foot structure locals have used for decades to catch redfish, speckled trout, black drum, sheepshead, and flounder, has been closed since Hurricane Ida damaged it in September 2021. That's five years, and it has nothing to do with the wetlands project down the shoreline. It's an entirely separate repair effort tied to storm damage, not erosion.
For most of that five years, the pier just sat there, closed, with bank fishing as the only legal option. That changed in early 2026. City council records show the damaged structure's demolition was formally certified complete at the February 12, 2026 council meeting. Around the same time, the city put a full rebuild out to bid: a new fishing pier, a handicap-accessible pier, and site repairs. Bids were due February 25, 2026. On March 26, 2026, the council awarded the contract to M&J Civil Construction, LLC as the apparent low bidder.
That means the actual rebuild only started moving in spring 2026, months after the wetlands project down the shoreline had already spent most of its budget. If you've been assuming the pier will reopen whenever the berm work finishes, that's not how the timeline actually runs. The pier project is earlier in its life cycle, and no public reopening date has been announced as of this writing.
What This Means If You Use Sunset Point
Here's a quick snapshot of where each project actually stands:
| Project | What it is | Who's funding it | Broke ground | Status as of mid-2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lakefront Wetlands Restoration | Rock berm, marsh creation, weir between Sunset Point and Lakeshore Drive | City Special Sales Tax Fund, CPRA matching grant, federal IIJA grant | Fall 2025 | About 79% of the $4M budget spent; final work likely ongoing |
| Fishing Pier Rebuild | New fishing pier, ADA handicap pier, site repairs | City of Mandeville capital budget | Contract awarded March 2026 | Early construction phase, no reopening date announced |
If you're the kind of resident who checks in on this stretch of shoreline because you fish there, walk your dog there, or just like the sunset view toward the Causeway, the practical takeaway is simple. These are two clocks, not one. The marsh and berm work is closer to done than a lot of people assume, based on how much of its budget has already gone out the door. The pier, on the other hand, is just getting started on its actual rebuild after years of sitting closed.
There's one more detail worth watching for. The original engineering concept behind the wetlands project, developed years before construction began, included a bike path and pedestrian link connecting Old Mandeville to Sunset Point Park as part of the berm's closure design. Whether that link makes it into the final built project is something residents will only know once the city posts updated plans, but it's the kind of detail that would change how the two neighborhoods connect on foot or by bike.
For now, the most reliable way to track either project is the same way most of this information became public in the first place: city council agendas and capital budget documents, both of which the City of Mandeville posts on its own site as items move through bidding, contract award, and completion certification.
Sunset Point has been under some form of construction for the better part of two years now. Knowing that it's two separate stories, not one delayed one, makes the wait a little easier to read.
If you're thinking about what's next for your own home on the Northshore, whether that means buying, selling, or simply understanding how projects like this shape day to day life in Mandeville, Allison Vencil is glad to talk it through. Let's Connect.
