Posted on September 28, 2020
PINE KNOLL SHORES — The Carteret County Beach Commission will receive its annual “State of the Beach” report from its beach engineering firm Monday when it meets at 2 p.m. in the Pine Knoll Shores Town Hall and on Zoom.
The presentation by representatives from Moffatt & Nichol, the county’s beach engineering firm, will be detailed, but Greg Rudolph, manager of the County Shore Protection Office, outlined a few highlights in an email this week.
For example, he said, according to the engineers’ recent survey, Bogue Banks gained sand in the past year, even without considering the 2 million cubic yards placed on the beaches during the nourishment project completed in the spring.
The beaches lost millions of cubic yards of sand during and after Hurricane Florence in September 2018, Mr. Rudolph said, but it didn’t go very far, just downslope in the ocean.
“Well some of that sand in the past year has moved upslope above -12 feet sea level,” he said, putting it closer to the recreational beach. At that level, Mr. Rudolph said, it counts “as a gain” and a fairly sizeable one, possibly as much as a million cubic yards.
As a result, he said, “All of our reaches gained sand this past year regardless if they received nourishment or not, with two notable but not surprising exceptions, Emerald Isle East and Fort Macon (State Park), which is close to (Beaufort Inlet) and hasn’t been nourished in some time.”
“Reaches” are uniformly sized stretches, or transects, of beach the county uses to plan and execute nourishment projects and measure erosion and accretion. Emerald Isle East is roughly from the town line with Indian Beach through Emerald Isle’s numbered streets to the vehicle access ramp on Ocean Drive. Fort Macon beaches are expected to get nourished this winter as part of the periodic federal project to dredge and dispose of sand from the harbor at the State Port of Morehead City. Eastern Emerald is Bogue Banks’ erosion hotspot and is scheduled get sand this winter in a $32 million county-sponsored project.
Also during the meeting Monday, a local company, Geodynamics of Newport, will give the commission a presentation on laser-scanning measurement work that began along Bogue Banks in 2018.
“The laser scanning … allows us to look in between the transects,” Mr. Rudolph said in the email. “It has been very helpful in tracing the dune line before and after Florence, and has helped us … quantify exactly where our East Emerald Isle hotspot zone is, which in turn has aided our nourishment geometry plans for the upcoming Phase III nourishment project in East Emerald Isle.”
That project will also include central and extreme western Emerald Isle.
Mr. Rudolph said the laser-scanning project was initiated in a contract for two years. He plans to recommend the commission, which advises his office, extend that contract, which is beyond what the county pays for beach surveys.
Also, the board Monday will continue to discuss whether to participate in the federal Bogue Banks Coastal Storm Risk Management Project, would establish a regular schedule of beach nourishment – presumably with federal money – for the island.
In a meeting earlier this month, Mr. Rudolph outlined a list of advantages and possible disadvantages to participating in the project, which would supplant the county’s current program to nourish beaches, when needed, chiefly paid for with local with local and with state and Federal Emergency Management Agency when it is available.
To join the Zoom meeting, visit carteretcountync.zoom.us/j/87051701544?pwd=bE5SZlRudnpBdlZER0pHT2FDZHVSdz09 and enter the meeting ID 870 5170 1544 and password rw7B2x when prompted.
Contact Brad Rich at 252-864-1532; email Brad@thenewstimes.com; or follow on Twitter @brichccnt.
Source: carolinacoastonline
