Posted on July 22, 2026
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SEA BREEZE, N.C. (WECT) – Decades of shoreline erosion along Snow’s Cut have widened the channel, closed a public park, and raised concerns about navigation safety along a key link between the Cape Fear River and the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway.
Now, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced Monday, July 20, it has awarded a $7,015,897 contract to Cape Romain Contractors, Inc. to address the problem.
The contract is for bank stabilization work along the man-made channel. Snow’s Cut, which separates Carolina Beach and Kure Beach from mainland New Hanover County, was dug between 1929 and 1931 with an authorized original width of 90 feet.
According to a September 2025 draft environmental assessment prepared by the Corps’ Wilmington District, erosion over the decades has expanded the channel to between 400 and 600 feet wide along much of its length.
The assessment found the channel has lost an average of 0.86 acres of shoreline per year. Between 1953 and 2013, the northern bank eroded at an average of 1.6 linear feet annually, while the southern bank lost 1.8 linear feet per year, according to the document.
