Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corporation (GLDD) has successfully completed the Nags Head beach nourishment project.
The beach nourishment sand pumping operations were completed early on Sunday morning, August 18, 2019 in the 8200 block of South Old Oregon Inlet Road near Mile Post 17, reported the town.
During the 2019 beach nourishment campaign, GLDD’s hopper dredges Ellis Island and Liberty Island placed approximately 4 million cubic yards of sand over 10 miles of shoreline from the Bonnett Street public beach access near milepost 11, south to the town line with the National Park Service near milepost 21.
Nags Head beach nourishment project is one of the largest locally-funded projects of its kind in the United States.
This $34.7 million scheme was awarded to Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corporation (GLDD) back in 2018.
Nourishment projects are designed and constructed to take advantage of the natural forces, such as waves and currents, to move sand offshore.
This process results in a natural sloping beach within the littoral zone (the area between the low and high tide lines), and is referred to as profile equilibration (or profile adjustment).