The Town of Nags Head, NC, will be conducting a beach nourishment maintenance project starting in May 2019 and lasting possibly into October 2019.
The construction activities will take place from the Bonnett Street public beach access at 2919 South Virginia Dare Trail (near Mile Post 11) south to the town line with the National Park Service (near Mile Post 21).
“ According to Great Lakes Dredge and Dock, the dredging contractor for the upcoming beach nourishment project, we will, for most of the spring and summer, have two hopper dredges working off our shore. Therefore, there will be two closed construction beach sections, about 1,000 feet in length, during most of the project ,” the town stated.
As background, in general, a hopper dredge will draw sand into its large hold and then it will sail to a submerged pipe and pump the sand onto the shore, where bulldozers grade the sand into a pre-determined construction template.
Beach nourishment projects are designed to take advantage of natural forces to move about two-thirds of the sand offshore to create a more stable beach shape, which is more effective in breaker larger waves offshore.
The specific start date in May was not given.