Posted on April 7, 2019
SAVANNAH, Ga. (WTGS FOX 28) — The dune restoration project on Tybee Island is almost finished. They’re on track to meet their completion date of Friday.
After hurricanes, storms and king tides over the years, the dunes got washed away, but now, they’re built back up.
Shawn Gillen, Tybee’s city manager, said it’s to protect the city from water flooding in.
“The dune is the main front line of defense against a storm surge and a storm surge is what’s really deadly during a hurricane,” said Gillen.
Over top of those dunes is a new crossover that’s handicap accessible.
This dune project stretches from Tybrisa Street down to 19th Street beach.
Two new showers are also built, one at Tybrisa and one at 14th Street beach.
“These new showers will be fed by the shallow wells and won’t impact our water usage,” said Gillen.
New portable restrooms will also be brought in.
Rebuilding the dunes is the first step in a greater beach re-nourishment project. The Corps of Engineers will do a big renourishment on Tybee later this year. Gillen said it will happen after turtle season ends on Nov. 1.
“They’ve done renourishments like every seven to 10 years, but being hit by two hurricanes two years in a row and some of the other storms that we’ve had have really eroded this beach down. This year we’re getting a full renourishment a lot sooner than we normally would,” said Gillen.
They’ll bring in sand and pump it offshore to the beach.
“What’s different about this big beach nourishment is they’re going to include dunes as part of that renourishment, that’s the first time they’ve ever done that. So from Center Street almost all the way up to where the curve of Highway 80 is by the Water Tower, they’re going to be building a big dune that’s more seaward,” said Gillen.
In the meantime, it’s important that people stay off the new dunes. There’s fencing up now to keep people off and the city plans to put in sea grass to minimize foot traffic on them.
The dune restoration project cost just under one $1 million and was state funded.
The beach renourishment project will be federally funded.
The final touches for the dune restoration project are being done this week and should be done by Friday.
Source: fox28media.com
