The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Charleston District, has officially commenced the beach renourishment project at Folly Beach, starting the estimated five month long process of placing 1.5 million cubic yards of sand to restore 5.34 miles of beach.
The beach renourishment is being conducted as part of a 50 year agreement with the City of Folly Beach, and is the first periodic renourishment since 2005.
“The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will help provide protection to properties and infrastructure along the coast while taking precautions to protect the environment ,” said David Warren, project manager . “ The Corps strives to strike a balance between protecting life and property while protecting the environment.”
The $30.7million contract to complete the beach renourishment was awarded in October 2013 to Great Lakes Dredge and Dock Company, LLC. The funding is cost-shared with the City of Folly Beach.
During active beach renourishment construction, the majority of Folly Beach remains open and available for the public to enjoy. The contractor works 24 hours a day, seven days a week during construction, usually completing 300 – 500 feet per day, barring mechanical or weather/sea condition delays. That means that active construction that is fenced off will typically only be directly in front of any particular building for two or three days. Even then, the area fenced off is usually about 1,000 feet long, so it’s easy to go around the active construction area.
Pipelines running along the beach outside of the fenced area can safely be crossed where the contractor places crossover sand ramps over the pipes. The public should keep away from lines and only cross them at the sand crossovers.
“There will be occasional minor inconveniences to people during this project, but it is for a major long-term benefit of protecting people and property from storm damage, ” added Warren.
After all 5.34 miles of renourishment has been completed, another contractor, Team Henry Enterprises, LLC, of Newport News, Va., will install sand fences and beach plants. These operations will take 45-60 days and will only impact the area the crews are working in as they progress down the beach.
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Press Release, January 20, 2014