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Consultant: Southern Shores beach nourishment is holding, shows net sand gains through 2024
Summary
A consultant told the Southern Shores Town Council that monitoring through June 2024 shows the 2022–23 beach nourishment project has produced net volume gains and wider usable beach width in key areas, while staff outlined planning and funding steps for a 2027 maintenance event.
Ken, the presenter contracted to evaluate the 2022–23 beach nourishment project, told the Southern Shores Town Council on Dec. 3 that monitoring results to June 2024 show the project is performing at or above its design targets. "The project appears to be performing well at this point in time," Ken said during a detailed slide presentation on monitoring methods, shoreline change and volume trends.
Ken said about 990,000 cubic yards of sand were placed in initial construction and an additional roughly 58,100 cubic yards were placed north of 7th Avenue in May 2023. Project-wide survey work across 23 profiles indicates the northern sector gained about 16.6 feet of shoreline since construction and that the townwide post-construction volumes are roughly 400,000 cubic yards higher than pre-project levels, largely reflecting natural offshore redistribution as well as the supplemental placement.
Why it matters: the project was designed to provide a reasonable level of storm-damage reduction and to restore usable beach in the northern sector. Ken said the monitoring program — annual land and boat surveys extending to roughly the 24-foot depth contour — enables staff to distinguish short-term equilibration after construction from longer-term erosional trends.
Monitoring and metrics: Ken explained the use of shoreline-contour measurements (for example, the 4-foot and 6-foot contours) and volume comparisons between the post-construction baseline, the 2023 survey and the 2024 survey. He noted that the northern area’s average usable width rose from roughly 57 feet before the project to about 93.5 feet as of June 2024.
Next steps and costs: staff and the presenter outlined planning for a 2027 maintenance event, including permitting and design, and discussed options for placing material to support 5-, 6- or 7-year maintenance cycles. Ken said a regional sand-resource investigation has identified potential offshore borrow areas and that detailed coring results are expected in the coming months to confirm suitability and unit-cost estimates.
Questions from council: members asked for more granular tables (shoreline retreat vs. construction width, annual volume changes) and Ken said those figures are available in the project completion and post-construction reports. He also noted a hotspot discussed in the written report is not currently losing sand faster than expected.
Context and funding: Ken and staff said the town received a tourism-impact grant of $91,000 (25% match) to continue Path Avenue work, and Dare County has been awarded state coastal-storm grant funds to support multi-town projects; staff plan to pursue state and county funding for future maintenance cycles. Ken stressed that some recent positive volume trends are influenced by regional offshore sand movements as well as the project design, so ongoing monitoring is required.
Where this goes next: staff will continue annual monitoring (typically May–June), complete sand-source coring results, refine the 2027 budget estimate and bring formal funding requests back to council before design and permitting work begins.
