STATE OFFICIALS MAP OUT BEACH MAINTENANCE; A LONG-RANGE PLAN IS CREATED TO MAINTAIN FLORIDA'S BEACHES AND CONTROL EROSION.(B SECTION)

Byline: Rod Thomson STAFF WRITER

For decades, the Florida Department of Transportation has used a long-range plan for maintaining roads, which includes the road work, costs and source of funding.

But nothing of the sort existed for Florida's beaches, which have been maintained predominately on an emergency basis to keep houses from falling into the water.

Until now. The Florida Bureau of Beaches and Coastal Systems has created a long-range plan to maintain beaches and inlets, and control erosion.

"We're in a new era in beach management in Florida," Al Devereaux, chief of the bureau, told an audience of beach engineers last week at the …