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    Home Duck Town of Duck Wins Award for Shoreline Protection

    Town of Duck Wins Award for Shoreline Protection

    By Kip Tabb
    December 1, 2024

    From late fall of last year into spring of this year, the drive from Duck to Corolla was just miserable. For approximately a quarter mile from Tommy’s Market north to Sunset Grill, one lane of NC12 was always closed.

    That closure was the most visible and last hurdle of a multi-year town project that should protect one of the highway’s most vulnerable sections from flooding for years to come.

    The project, which cost more than $4 million, included creating a living shoreline and improvements to the rock revetment protecting the road, raising the roadbed, and finishing the north end of the town’s sidewalk plan.

    Duck NC Living Shoreline Project

    Now completed, the project has garnered an award from the American Planning Association, North Carolina chapter.

    The Marvin Collins Planning Award in Sustainability and Resilience is described by the APA as awarding projects and programs that “show high quality, originality, and innovation, as well as a degree of transferability. They are also impactful, in that they address a known community need and position the community for a stronger, more equitable future.”
    The project certainly does all of that.

    That particular stretch of highway had been vulnerable to flooding anytime there was a strong sustained wind from the west. At just 18 inches higher than the sound, three or four times a year, the road would be flooded.

    The revetment was also a problem. The rocks used were too small for the forces involved, and after particularly strong westerly winds occurred, boulders would be strewn across the highway as waves lifted the rock from its setting.

     

    Duck NC Living Shoreline Project Breakwater Bulkhead

    The project began in 2019-2020 as the town prepared to implement the last piece of its sidewalk plan. It would include sidewalks on both sides of the road and a living shoreline.

    The town was ready to move forward in the fall of 2020 when FEMA released policy and guidelines for its Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) program.

    Although the town had some grant money in hand, it decided to develop a comprehensive plan to address the chronic flooding of NC12 on the north end of town.

    The plan that Sandy Cross, the town’s senior Planner, came up with seemed to check almost all of the boxes FEMA put in their guidelines. It reduced natural hazard risk to public infrastructure, incorporated nature-based solutions, and enhanced climate resilience and adaptation.

    Learning they would get the grant, the town started in on the more expansive project.

    Sills were installed just offshore to mitigate wave action. Behind the sills, native aquatic grasses and vegetation were planted. There was a lot of additional work that had to be done first to rid the area of Phragmites, a fast growing invasive species that overwhelms native grasses.

    Duck NC Living Shoreline Project and Currituck Sound in Background

    Along the side of the road, the small boulder revetment was replaced by what are called Class III Armor Stone—boulders weighing 3000 pounds. Finally, the roadbed was raised a little over two feet, which is why it was one-lane traffic through the end of 2023 and into the spring of this year.

    The early signs are the project was successful. Native grasses have taken root behind the sills. Although the sills are important in breaking up the wave energy coming ashore, it is the root systems and grasses that trap and hold soil to regrow the shoreline and create the additional protection needed.

    At approximately six feet above sea level, the road should be protected from flooding. To further protect it, there are a series of retention ponds on the east side of the road.

    And, of course, the final step of the sidewalk plan is in place.

    There is a final touch to the project, which may, over time, be something that will enhance the area for some time to come. At the edge of the wetland soil, marsh elder has been planted. A woody, perennial shrub, songbirds are regular visitors using its leaves and fruit for shelter and food.

    For her work in obtaining the necessary permits and general expertise in coastal permitting, Sandy Cross was awarded the North Carolina Division of Coastal Management 2024 Exceptional Performance and Service Award.