Consultant: Nags Head beaches largely stable; town readies 2026'27 nourishment project

A consultant for Nags Head Town told the mayor and commissioners that the town's Oct. 2024'June 2025 beach monitoring survey found net sand gains in monitored areas and that the town is moving forward with planning a large beach nourishment project.

"This was not that bad of a year. It was a fairly stable year for the town's beaches," said Dr. Beth Chadon of Moffett and Nickel, who presented the survey results. Chadon reported a gain of nearly 70,000 cubic yards within the nourished oceanfront and roughly 263,000 cubic yards across the monitored oceanfront for the June 2024'June 2025 period.

The monitoring uses standard transects along the nourished oceanfront from Bonnet north to the town boundary and south to Oregon Inlet and measures shoreline change from the mean high water contour and volumetric change above specific elevation bands, Chadon said. She noted the survey period had fewer large wave events than typical and a shift in predominant wave direction to the east'southeast, which likely reduced…