Posted on April 23, 2026
Beach nourishment projects in Avon and Buxton are expected to get underway in early May, with contractor Great Lakes Dredge & Dock planning to begin sand placement in Avon before shifting operations south to Buxton later in the spring or summer.
According to Dare County officials, sand placement in Avon is anticipated to begin between May 6 and May 14, depending on weather conditions. The exact starting location within Avon has not yet been determined.
The Avon portion of the project is expected to take approximately two weeks to complete, with roughly 375,000 cubic yards of sand scheduled to be placed along the shoreline. Once that work is finished, crews will need about a week to demobilize equipment and relocate operations to Buxton.
In Buxton, work is expected to begin during the first week of June, also weather dependent. Plans call for construction to start on the northern end of the project area and move south, although officials note that sequencing could change based on site conditions and operational needs.
The base project in Buxton includes approximately 1,351,616 cubic yards of sand and is expected to take about 65 days to complete. However, the overall timeline could extend significantly if additional funding is secured. Namely, if Dare County receives approval for federal reimbursement through the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), additional sand volumes would be added to the project, which could extend construction in Buxton through the end of September.
The 2026 projects will follow the same general footprint as the 2022 nourishment efforts in both villages. In Avon, the project area stretches from the Avon Pier south to the village boundary. In Buxton, the project will cover roughly 2.9 miles, extending from the Haulover Day Use Area between Avon and Buxton south to the southernmost groin near the former Cape Hatteras Lighthouse site.
The 2026 nourishment efforts were originally planned for 2027 but were accelerated due to rapidly increasing erosion rates, particularly along the Buxton shoreline, where a series of oceanfront home collapses and infrastructure concerns in recent months have highlighted the urgency of reinforcing the beach.
While beach nourishment projects are generally designed to last about five years, their actual lifespan can vary widely depending on storm activity and long-term erosion trends, and recent conditions have shortened those timelines in some areas.
Beach nourishment in Dare County is funded through a combination of local, state, and potential federal sources, with the primary local funding mechanism tied to Outer Banks tourism.
A dedicated portion of the county’s occupancy tax — specifically 2% of the total 6% tax on short-term vacation accommodations — is restricted by law for beach nourishment and related shoreline management efforts, including sand placement, dune construction, vegetation, and fencing, in accordance with the state’s Coastal Area Management Act. Additional funding sources include property taxes from municipal service districts in Avon and Buxton, possible state appropriations, and, when available, federal disaster assistance.
One of the largest outstanding questions for the 2026 projects is whether the county will receive reimbursement through FEMA’s Public Assistance program.
Dare County submitted a request for funding in early 2025 to help offset sand losses from recent storm events, but as of the latest April updates, no final determination has been made. County officials have said that FEMA’s decision remains a key uncertainty, as additional funding would allow for greater sand volumes and potentially extend the lifespan of the projects, but both Avon and Buxton’s nourishment efforts will continue regardless of FEMA funding.
In North Carolina, beach nourishment remains one of the primary tools available to address oceanfront erosion due to long-standing restrictions on hardened coastal structures. State law generally prohibits new permanent erosion control structures such as seawalls, groins, and jetties, limiting coastal communities to softer approaches like sand placement to maintain protective shorelines.
An exception to that rule is currently in play in Buxton, where the southernmost of three groins originally built in 1969-1970 by the U.S. Navy is slated for repair in 2026 under the state’s “50% rule,” which allows existing structures to be repaired if the work does not exceed half of the structure’s original footprint or value.
The planned repair, which is expected to take place in summer 2026 alongside the Buxton beach nourishment project if final approvals are secured, includes the removal of deteriorated materials, installation of steel sheet piles, and the addition of stone scour protection.
This project is awaiting final approval from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and while that permitting process is in the works, there is no timeline for when the Corps’ final approval will be granted, according to an early April update.
Officials have noted that while the groin may help slow sand loss in a particularly vulnerable section of the Buxton shoreline, it is not expected to stop erosion entirely.
At the same time, broader discussions are underway at the state level about whether existing coastal management rules should be adjusted in response to increasing erosion pressures. The North Carolina Coastal Resources Commission’s Science Panel is reviewing the impacts of hardened structures, while local officials and advocates have begun exploring potential policy changes or exemptions for highly erosion-prone areas of Hatteras and Ocracoke Islands. No formal changes have been adopted to date, but the ongoing conversations reflect growing concern about the long-term sustainability of current shoreline management strategies.
For now, attention remains focused on the 2026 nourishment projects, which are expected to bring more than a million cubic yards of sand to the beaches of Avon and Buxton over the coming months, as crews work through the spring and summer to rebuild the shoreline and reinforce one of the barrier island’s primary defenses against the Atlantic Ocean.
