USA: Hilton Head Island Replenishment Moves Forward

A dredger 3 miles off the coast pumps a mixture of water and sand onto the beach Thursday as construction crews continue work on a $9.8 million beach renourishment project at Hilton Head Island’s Islander’s Beach Park.

Construction will take place 24 hours a day for two months to pump about 1 million cubic yards of sand onto a 1-mile stretch between The Westin Hilton Head Island Resort & Spa and the Beach House in Port Royal Plantation.

The work aims to combat a decade of erosion that has claimed about 80 to 100 feet of beachfront a year.

Left unchecked, the erosion could threaten oceanfront property, town officials said. Crews will later build a 700-foot-long wall of granite boulders to trap sand that normally would be lost to coastal drift.

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Dredging Today Staff, December 23, 2011;