Buxton Beach Nourishment Project is Underway

The Buxton Beach Nourishment project has begun, with crews working along the shoreline at a starting point that’s roughly 1,000 feet north of the town’s border.

The project, which was schedule to begin on June 17 had to be postponed due to inclement weather and high winds over the weekend. Now that it’s officially underway, it will take roughly 90 days to complete the 2.9 mile stretch of beach that is slated to be widened.

On Thursday morning, a handful of onlookers ventured close to the project to watch a pair of bulldozers spread out the new sand that was being funneled in from an offshore site 1.7 miles away.

The dredging vessel could be spotted in the distant background, however other than the bulldozers, the large metal pipe, and the construction equipment that was set up in a roughly 1,000’ ft. area, it was business as usual on the beach. The beeping of the dozers was barely audibly over the sound of the ocean, and families splashed in the water or laid out on the beach just a few hundred feet from where the project was taking place.

The crew completes about 250 feet of beach a day, with a total work area of about 1,000 feet. As a result, people in front of the target area can expect roughly 5-6 days of activity.

As the project continues, sand will continue to be deposited from the offshore dredge to the beach, and then shaped via the crew of dozers. The end result will be a shoreline that initially appears abnormally wide, but which will naturally change and adapt over time as storms blow through the area, and the sand migrates from the ocean to the dunes.

From this starting point, construction will initially proceed to the north until reaching the temporary resource protection area that has been established by the National Park Service to protect nesting birds.

At that point, crews will move back to the project’s initial starting point and proceed south. When the resource protection area is no longer in place, work will resume to the north. After work is completed to the northern project boundary, work will resume to the south until the project is completed.

For more information on the Beach Nourishment project, visit the website www.morebeachtolove.com.