Posted on November 17, 2025
A proposal to use sand dredged from Hatteras Inlet to protect eroded beaches on the south end of Hatteras Island is still on the table, but it may not be possible as soon as this winter’s maintenance project in Rollinson Channel, the Dare County Waterways Commission learned this week at its November meeting.
“We would like to truck that material to the beach area between Frisco and Hatteras,” Commission Chair Steve “Creature” Coulter told the panel, which met in Manteo on Monday. “They’re talking about shooting it out into the surf. Instead of putting it back into the system… maybe we can get some good out of the material.”
But Barton Grover, the commission’s administrator, said that even if Dare County paid for the required benthic monitoring, the Corps said that any modifications would take more time than is likely available before the start of the project early next year.
“They said it’s too late in the process,” he responded.
Noting that he understands that only one contractor had bid on the project, Coulter added that his hope was that the recent federal shutdown pause may have provided a new window to modify the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ permit to allow the dredge pipe to deposit sand at an area on the beach. Then the material – the project calls for dredging 45,000 cubic yards – could be loaded onto a truck and transported by the N.C. Department of Transportation to where it could be used to widen the beach or reconstruct dunes.
Coulter said that discussions about the proposal involved temporarily shortening the pipe to direct the sand to the beach, then reinstalling the extension. Also, he said, beach nourishment at that spot is already authorized by the National Park Service.
When the Corps finalized the realignment of Hatteras Inlet in June 2025, the modification included Corps’ authorization for beach placement of dredge material.
North of Hatteras Village on October 11. Photo by Jamie Fuller.
In another complication Grover described, if the sand was put on the beach instead of piped into the littoral zone as currently planned, the Corps’ authority would end at Pole Road, meaning a separate Department of Transportation (DOT) permit would be required.
“DOT would be the one trucking the sand,” he told commissioners. “Therefore, that would cease being a Corps action.”
Commenting on the prolonged pummeling of the beach this fall, members agreed with Coulter’s observation that “even old-old timers” say they haven’t ever seen such a stretch of nor’easters.
“Have you driven on that beach lately?” member Ernie Foster asked. “A minimum of 100 feet of it is gone from what it was three months ago.”
And Pole Road in Hatteras Village is “pretty much a beach road,” Coulter added.
“The change down there is dramatic.”
Speaking remotely, Dare County dredging project consultant Ken Willson, with Wilmington-based Coastal Protection Engineering, said that the Corps, while not outright opposed to putting the sand on the beach, was concerned about working through whether it would cost more than the project bid, and if the change would create a justification to protest the contract.
Still, Willson did not dismiss the possibility that something could be worked out to get the material to the beach, although it might not be as soon as the commission would like.
Coulter, for one, has not thrown in the towel.
“I’m semi-optimistic that all parties will come into an agreement,” he said after the meeting.
In updates discussed on Monday, Willson said that an interagency scoping meeting is scheduled on Nov. 18 to discuss a Corps permit modification that would authorize Dare County to do bucket-and-barge work and/or use the Miss Katie to dredge the Rodanthe emergency ferry channel.
“We want to get some guidance,” he said, including confirmation on the location of the proposed project and the number of vibracore sediment samples anticipated in a survey. “We want to make sure the agency agrees with our assessment.”
Catherine “Cat” Peele, planning and development manager with the N.C. Ferry Division, speaking remotely, told the commissioners that during recent tests, the ferry has been able to get in and out of the emergency channel.
Peele also told Coulter, in responding to his question about a backup if the channel became unusable after an event, said that she would check with the division if the Hatteras-Ocracoke passenger ferry could be used as a fail-safe.
“The Ferry Division is anticipating dredging the State Channel at Stumpy Point in mid-December,” Grover said in an e-mail. “It is currently passable. Federal part of the Stumpy Point channel was dredged last year.”
In a later interview, Grover said that the recent government shutdown had prevented the Corps and the National Marine Fisheries Service representatives from attending, which had delayed the scoping meeting.
“It’s just kind of briefing, a summary, so when it comes across their desk, they have the background on what the request is,” he said. “If they have any concerns on the front end, they can voice those concerns.”
Also, the planned cultural resource survey that has been expanded to cover more of the Connector Channel and the ocean has been delayed, but this time it wasn’t caused by the shutdown, it was because of the constant storms.
“They really do need very calm weather days to do that,” Grover said. “There has not been any calm weather for the last two months, and it’s something where they have to mobilize… They need to know a forecast, probably a week in advance.”
In a separate issue, Grover told the commission that the state-owned representative 16th-century sailing ship Elizabeth II needs to be taken out for maintenance by next winter. But similar to 2020, when a $1.9 million bucket-and-barge project was needed to address the problem, the channel outside of Shallowbag Bay is clogged, preventing passage of the vessel from its dock at Roanoke Island Festival Park.
Grover said in the interview that no funds have been allocated for a project. First, it would have to be determined what the project would be and which entity is responsible for providing the funds.
“So that is something operationally I would need to discuss,” he said, “whether Miss Katie can dredge in there or another bucket-and-barge event needs to occur.”
