Another step to save Brunswick Town and Fort Anderson from rapid shoreline erosion has been successfully completed.
Last week, Scenic Consulting Group (SCG) announced the completion of Phase 3A of a shoreline stabilization and restoration project at the state-owned historic site.
In spring 2008, BTFA staff noticed an increase in erosion along the site’s river shoreline and coastal resources due to the widening and deepening of the Cape Fear River from Port Wilmington to the Atlantic Ocean to accommodate large vessels to the port, creating a ship passing lane in front of the BTFA historical site.
Constant tide forces and dynamic wave action were bombarding the colonial-era wharves and washing important historical artifacts into the Cape Fear River and eroding valuable natural coastal resources.
As coastal erosion accelerated it quickly uncovered and destroyed three colonial-era wharves and damaged the Civil War era earthwork batteries. Many other historical archaeological artifacts, like colonial shoe buckles and Spanish clothing, for example, were being washed away.
The initial plan to protect BTFA involved a traditional rock breakwater structure (TRBS) living shoreline.
A TRBS would have worked along the Battery A shoreline; however, there was not sufficient horizontal area to accommodate such a large TRBS at the historic wharfs where the original, natural river channel occurred.
This area has a natural drop-off, and a TRBS would have covered the historic wharfs and the coastal resources which DNCR was also planning to save.