Posted on January 7, 2026
All along Mississippi’s shoreline, engineers determined to protect coastal cities from nature’s forces are confronting an urgent problem: The beaches are shrinking.
Years ago, swimmers and sunbathers sprawled across white sand that stretched far beyond the bustling beach highway. But so much of it has disappeared over the decades that now, in some spots, waves are washing close to traffic.
“We’re really to that critical point,” said Trey McKnight, Harrison County’s sand beach director. “We’ve got to make a move here.”
The federal government is about to. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is starting a massive project this year that will double the size of the beaches by adding more than 2 million cubic yards of sand from Ocean Springs to Bay St. Louis.
The plan, which is scheduled to begin in Biloxi as early as February, is in some respects a practical solution. To replace sand lost to erosion on the man-made beaches, the Army Corps will haul more in by truck and dredge it from deep underwater.
It is also a complex feat of engineering and an example of how communities across the Gulf South are trying to balance the divergent needs of man and nature.
Engineers have replenished the sand in patches every few years since the beaches were built in the 1950s. But the latest Army Corps project will mark the first time Hancock County’s beaches return to the original width since their creation and the first full expansion in Harrison County in almost two decades.
“This is a really big deal from one end of the coast to the other,” said Hancock County Administrator Jimmie Ladner.
The projects are separate in each county and will take several years to complete. But together they cost about $100 million and are a test for the federal engineers and counties, which are helping the government pay for the work.
“We’re battling Mother Nature,” said Dax Alexander, an engineer whose firm helped design the project in Harrison County. “But Mother Nature is powerful.”
Construction vehicles on Beach Boulevard on Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2025. Jackson Ranger jranger@sunherald.com
Beaches are hurricane defense
It’s not for show. The beaches have always lured tourists, but engineers say they are meant as a line of hurricane defense.
Centuries ago, Mississippi’s coastline was a mix of sand and wetland replenished by rivers and streams. But development through the 1920s upset the natural system, and the growing region built a seawall for protection.
Storms still threatened it. So the federal government added beaches as reinforcement. Without them, engineers say hurricanes would pound the old seawall. And cracks could decimate Highway 90, one of the region’s main travel corridors.
Construction vehicles can be seen near Beach Boulevard on Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2025. Jackson Ranger jranger@sunherald.com
Now the seawall is mostly buried in sand that has risen for decades. But the challenge is ceaseless. Sand keeps washing away with the currents and blowing everywhere in the wind. County leaders have tried to fight the drift with walls, dunes and fences. It has not stopped the shrinking.
“You’re always losing sand,” McKnight said. “It’s an uphill battle.”
Two decades ago, amid Hurricane Katrina’s ruin, the Army Corps outlined a plan for the future of the Mississippi Coast. It urged expanding the beaches to further strengthen the shoreline, “all with the goal of providing for a coastal community that is more resilient to hurricanes and storms,” said David Newell, the Coastal Resiliency Program manager for the Corps in Mobile.
Congress funded the projects four years ago.
An offshore dredge pumped about 1,000 gallons of sand and water a minute onto the beach in Harrison County during a sand replenishment project in 2008. Sun Herald file
In 2008, backhoes created a dam for dredged sand and water to be pumped into as employees of Enco Dredging of Gulf Shores, Ala., worked on the Harrison County beach replenishment project. Sun Herald file
Crews worked on a dredge project in 2008 in Harrison County. The messy mixture of sand and water eventually became white sand beach after several days of exposure to the sun. Sun Herald file
Replacing lost sand
In recent months, engineers have been busy modeling and measuring the beaches to understand how much sand contractors should dredge. They plan to extend the beaches to about 200 feet wide in most places. The Army Corps is also creating dunes with plants intended to stop more erosion.
The projects in each county are also unique. In Harrison County, the sand will be pumped from about a half mile offshore. McKnight said it will appear dark and dirty for a few weeks until the sun bleaches the color.
“It’s going to interrupt some day-to-day operations,” he said. “But it’s temporary.”
In Jackson County, sand will be dredged from the Pascagoula River channel and brought by barge to Ocean Springs. And Hancock County is opting to truck sand in by land to spread across its smaller beaches.
A person walks along East Beach in Ocean Springs on Tuesday, June 11, 2024. Hannah Ruhoff Sun Herald
The projects are also on different schedules. The Army Corps is planning to work west from Biloxi and expects to finish expanding Harrison County’s beaches by fall 2027. McKnight said timelines will become clearer after a pre-construction meeting with the federal government in early January.
Newell, with the Army Corps in Mobile, said the agency expects to award a contract for construction in Hancock County by the spring and in Jackson County by next year. Matthew Hosey, a project manager, said Jackson County will only replenish parts of beaches in Ocean Springs because Pascagoula has a living shoreline that engineers believe is stable.
The project may come with headaches: Beaches across the region will close in sections while the sand is spread. And challenges persist. The Army Corps uses a precise color and grain of sand and has returned to the same spots in the Mississippi Sound over the years to dredge it. But some engineers fear those sites are not replenishing fast enough.
The Gulfport beach on Monday, July 17, 2023. Hannah Ruhoff Sun Herald
Still, engineers are calling the project a milestone that will transform the Coast. In Harrison County, McKnight said, the sand is supposed to reach the end of long drainage pipes that stick out every few hundred yards.
The pipes have been sitting in water for years.
“That puts in perspective how much we don’t have,” he said.
