Beach Renourishment at Wrightsville Beach Underway

Weeks Marine is working under a $13.2 million contract from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Wilmington District to dredge sand from offshore and place it on North Carolina beaches.

Approximately 700,000 cubic yards of sand will be dredged from Mason’s Inlet and pumped via pipe along about a mile of Wrightsville’s Beach’s total 4.5-mile span. The renourishment is addressing the area with the worst erosion. This part of the dredging project will cost about $9.5 million of the total contract.

The remaining contract will be to dredge approximately 250,000 cubic yards of sand off Ocean Isle Beach and pipe sand to those eroding shores. The Wrightsville Beach portion should be complete by the end of March and the Ocean Isles project will start immediately following.

Weeks Marine is using its 30-inch cutter suction dredge McCaskill. As of February 27, the dredge was pumping sand on the southern end of the beach where bulldozers push the sand to shape it as designed.

Wrightsville Beach, New Hanover County and the state are all contributing funding for the work with some federal dollars also coming in as part of disaster relief funds after Hurricane Matthew.