Beach nourishment construction zone in Duck.The first 200' of the Dare County Intra-Local Beach Nourishment project has been competed in Duck.
Crews been working last week and made good progress in spite of some thunderstorms that rolled through the area. The schedule is pretty aggressive so crews are working seven days a week.
A Construction Zone
Beach nourishment calls for an active construction zone, and Great Lades Dredge Company, who has the contract to place the sand on the beach, has a lot of experience in the field. As a consequence the area they are working in is clearly marked as a construction zone.
Plans call for minimizing the impact of the project for Outer Banks visitors. Construction zones, as an example, are limited to 500', creating plenty of sandy space on both sides.
Planned Schedule
The first phase in Duck should take 45 days. Equipment will then be moved to Kitty Hawk and Southern Shores. Southern Shores is a bit late to the nourishment party, the decision to nourish about a half mile of shoreline came after Hurricane Matthew devastated the beach in front of Pelican Watch.
Southern Shores did not officially vote to participate until March of this year.
The Kitty Hawk portion of the project is the most involved and according to the design team from Coastal Planning and Engineering of North Carolina the work will take 74 days, beginning in early July and ending in September.
Included in that work is a one week window in June to complete the Southern Shores portion.
Work in Kill Devil Hills will being in August and plans call for it to take about 40 days.
The appearance of the Duck beach is typical of a newly nourished area. Much wider than it was before nourishment, by design a portion of that sand will be returning to the sea to create a protective sandbar.
Beach nourishment does take a long-term commitment. Typically a beach has to be renourished in five to seven years. The Nags Head beach, which was nourished in 2011, is due to for a touch next year, seven years after the first phase of their project ended.
Replenishing, however, is not as expensive as the first go around nor does it take as long.
