Last summer, a few towns on the Outer Banks took on a serious project: beach nourishment. Beach nourishment is the process of extracting sand from offshore ‘borrow’ sites and transporting them via a dredge to be pumped along the shoreline to expand the beach. The town of Duck nourished 1.7 …
In March of this year, the town of Southern Shores decided to move forward with beach nourishment, piggybacking on the Kitty Hawk project to replenish a small section of threatened shoreline just north of the Kitty Hawk town line. With that decision, Southern Shores joined every other oceanfront town in …
With an initial price tag of $38.6 million, nourishing the beaches of northern Dare County is expensive. To pay for it, the county and towns have devised an intra-local agreement that offsets the cost to any one entity. Funding Formula Although beach nourishment projects can qualify for federal funds, there …
As it has gained popularity as a means of stabilizing shorelines and protecting infrastructure, concerns have been raised about beach nourishment. Two areas in particular are often cited as possible disadvantages of a nourishment project: environmental damage, and ongoing cost and commitment. Environmental Concerns Although a beach may appear to …
For thousands of years, humans have been trying to protect our shorelines from an encroaching sea – from the massive dikes of the Netherlands, to jetties, terminal groins and seawalls. The most recent addition to mitigating the power of the ocean, beach nourishment, has been shown to be an effective …
For more information on 2017 beach nourishment areas and timelines, visit our Beach Nourishment Info Page. On a beautiful summer’s day on the Outer Banks it’s hard to imagine the forces at work that shape the coastal shoreline. Waves seem like gentle riffles, larger perhaps than a wave on a lake …
