InView
Up From the Deep
Back to the Beach
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ quadrennial winter beach sand mitigation project,
aka beach renourishment, at Wrightsville Beach March 14, 2018. Sand that has eroded
from the beach is redistributed back to the strand through dredging barges, heavy
pipes and bulldozers. The project, which dredges sand from Masonboro Inlet and
Banks Channel and pumps it north adding pipe as it progresses, began just north of the
Blockade Runner Beach Resort and terminates just north of the Holiday Inn Resort. The
federal government is paying 65 percent of this year’s $9.5 million cost, with matching
funds from New Hanover County’s Wrightsville Beach room occupancy tax beach sand
fund and the State of North Carolina adding 17.5 percent each. The Corps of Engineers
released a benefit-cost ratio for Wrightsville Beach sand mitigation projects in August
2016 that revealed a $7.62 return for every $1 invested.
photography by PETER NEWMAN/AERIAL IMAGES ILM
april 2018 50
WBM